In 2016, Microsoft released an Artificial Intelligence bot called Tay on Twitter that could interact with other users and adapt to different conversations. It was a successful project–until hackers took over the AI and it started spewing racist comments, causing Microsoft to take it down and issue an apology. CEO Satya Nadella confronted his team and took an approach that surprised everyone unfamiliar with how he led his business.

Instead of being told off or berated like most employees expect, the team behind Tay received a follow-up email after the incident where Nadella didn’t take to anger, saying this instead: “Keep pushing, and know that I am with you… (The) key is to keep learning and improving.”

A lot of the time, people expect business leaders to lose their cool when employees make major mistakes, and unfortunately it happens regularly. We’ve all seen bosses publicly humiliate workers for making even just the smallest error, too. 

What you need to remember is that reacting negatively will only result in more negativity. It doesn’t help you or your staff. You want to step into the shoes of Nadella and other business leaders who practice empathic leadership in order to uplift your staff, point out their mistakes and still make it a point to show them how they can improve next time.

Being a business leader means you need to be conscious of how you act and react–always with empathy and fairness.  

Why it’s important to handle mistakes with empathy

When it comes to leadership, you need to have a lot of empathy and emotional intelligence in order to handle a whole team. Doing so makes your staff more open and comfortable with you and with each other, making for a more collaborative, outspoken and long-lasting team.

Mistakes happen, even from you, and that should be something you remember when handling any mistakes your team makes too. When you make mistakes, you want someone to be understanding of you and your situation as well–your staff more than likely feel the same way. Staff who have committed errors are vulnerable and will already feel anxious, making a difficult situation all the more delicate. Aggravating that anxiety or negativity further doesn’t help anyone. 

While any business mistake may hit closer to home to you than to your employees, you need to remember that these are the people who are running your business alongside you. Resist your angry feelings because they only exacerbate anxiety and make your staff feel guilty instead of empowered to do better next time.

5 ways to respond to a staff member’s error

Responding to your staff member’s mistakes can be tricky as you want to balance being fair with being compassionate. These five tips can help you navigate these complex situations. 

1. Take some time to collect your thoughts

Your business means a lot to you–that’s just natural–and a mistake that could cause some bad publicity or major repercussions reflects badly on you. However, that doesn’t give you license to storm into the meeting room and raise your voice, no matter how personally you take it. You need to take a second to breathe, formulate your thoughts and think about how you’re going to communicate with your staff. 

Your staff probably didn’t have malicious intent when they made the mistake, so that has to be taken into consideration. Of course, meaning well doesn’t take away from the severity of what they did, but consider that it wasn’t their ideal outcome either. 

In order to handle the situation, remember that the way you say things is just as important as the things you say. Getting angry can lower morale for everyone involved, so allow those immediate negative feelings to subside before you take action. 

2. Don’t make assumptions

Assumptions make you less open to conversation because your mind’s already made up about what they were thinking at the moment. When you assume, you already have a narrative you’re invested in and biased towards. Avoid questions like “why did you do that?” or “what were you thinking?” because you’re already predisposed to an answer to those questions.

Instead, ask about what happened, let them talk and explain so you can get to the root of the problem. Listen first, and not with the intention of just waiting for your turn to talk, but to really hear them out.

3. Don’t wait for more problems to compound

While trying to stray from angry feelings is important, don’t fall into the trap of avoiding confrontation altogether. It still needs to happen so your staff know the seriousness of their errors. If you brush it off and wait for the situation to become worse or for a chain of mistakes to follow, it’ll only become harder for both parties and your business (and the rest of the team) will suffer. 

4. Identify the outcome you want from the conversation

When your employee is done providing you with their side of the story, have a conversation around what you expect from that point forward. Don’t focus on the past nor bring it back up by asking what they were thinking. Rather, try to shift the conversation towards what they can do instead and what they can improve on. 

Make sure you explicitly outline why it wasn’t okay but don’t linger there too long, emphasise the fact that they can do better next time and the things they can carry out to succeed and avoid making the same mistake. Encourage, don’t discourage. 

5. Set clear expectations to prevent future mistakes

Empathy is important, but remember to set clear boundaries and expectations. This is still a role with responsibilities that need to be fulfilled and if your employee is clearly not cut out for it, then there has to be a threshold they cannot cross in terms of mistakes. 

Be understanding about what happened but be clear about how many chances they have to redeem themselves or a time period in which they can prove themselves still reliable. Make sure you are very transparent about their status and what they need to do.

When your staff members commit major mistakes, they’re likely looking for sympathy and to alleviate their guilt. And while it’s not always what you want to do in the moment–especially because your business was an idea you conceived and built from the ground up–it’s a skill you need to develop in order to best encourage them to turn their mistakes around and get back on track. Getting yelled at by your boss is always disheartening, no matter the intention, especially if it’s only anger packaged in an angrier voice. 

When you treat your staff with respect and empathy and try to hear them out the same way you would want to be given the time to explain a mistake you committed, you’re able to extract what happened and figure out the steps you need to take in order to move forward.

If you want some more guidance around how to handle staff members who’ve made pretty major mistakes, book a call with us now and we’ll provide you with expert advice on how you can turn things around and invigorate your employees to do better alongside you.