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Some people think that once you’ve “made it” in business,
you’ll have fewer problems.
In reality, it’s quite the opposite.
In order to "make it” in any business, you have to do more than
others.
The more you do, the more mistakes that will be made.
And the more mistakes that are made, the more problems you'll
have to deal with.
After spending last week on the road, I returned to my office
and went though the typical stack of paperwork on my desk.
Within it were the weekly deposits, which I audited as I always
do. I discovered that one deposit for $48,448 was listed for
$36,982.
So what do you do about a bookkeeper that makes an $11,466
error?
Assuming it’s not a regular occurrence,
you find out
why it happened, and what needs to be done to ensure it doesn’t
continue happening.
IBM founder Tom Watson once had an employee who made a mistake
that cost him $600,000. When asked if he was going to fire the
employee, Mr. Watson replied, “Of course not. I just spent
$600,000 training him. Why would I want another company to reap
the benefit of the training I just paid for?”
Now don’t get me wrong. I was not happy to discover the $11,466
error, and the ensuing conversation was not a fun one. But it
was just that
–
a conversation
– not a disciplinary proceeding.
In business as in most areas of life, how we react to
problems
is sometimes more detrimental than the problem itself.
While ignoring problems is never helpful, neither is
overreacting.
Those who accomplish the most are
often the ones that make the most mistakes.
Mistakes are inevitable and as long as they’re reasonable and
not too frequent, they provide the best training.
The only way to avoid ever making
any mistakes is to
do nothing, and that's the most unforgiveable mistake anyone
can make in business.
To Your Success,
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“It’s more important to always be
reasonable than to always be right.”
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Glenn Shepard |
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Dear Glenn,
I have a driver who has
given me notice that he will be absent on Tuesday,
December 8th, because the (Green Bay) Packers play the
Baltimore Ravens in Monday Night Football on December
7th, and he will be "unable to do his job properly" that
Tuesday.
I'm a big Packers fan too, but think this is ridiculous.
Is this a battle I should lose?
Brett
in Appleton, WI
Dear Brett,
I remember the great Paul
Harvey reporting that when the Chicago Bears were having
a great season, one large Chicago employer that was open
on Sundays put up a big screen television that was only
turned on during Bears' games. As a result, their
absenteeism rate on football Sundays dropped by over
50%.
While I agree with you in theory that he should still be
able to do his job even when he doesn't feel like it, I
say this is a battle you lose in order to win the war,
assuming he has the time coming to him.
At least he had the professional courtesy to give you
this much advance notice.
Also keep in mind the legal ramifications. If he did
come to work that Tuesday and got in a wreck in your
truck, you could have a ton of liability for putting him
behind the wheel when he advised you he would be in no
condition to drive.
On
another note, my hometown team (the Tennessee Titans)
has the second worst record in the NFL (thanks Tampa
Bay for being worse), so I'd he happy to have a team
good enough to want to stay up that late to watch on a Monday
night.
Thanks for your question.
Glenn In Nashville
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