How to Recover When You've Let a Colleague Down

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton and welcome to the Leaders Kit Bag, your go to podcast for practical leadership insights in just six minutes. In each episode we tackle real challenges faced by leaders and managers, offering actionable tools and strategies you can take away and immediately apply. And because leadership doesn't happen in a studio, the these episodes are mostly recorded outside on the move. They're raw, unscripted and straight to the point. So wherever you are, let's dive in and sharpen your leadership skills six minutes at a time. Welcome to another episode of the Leader's Kit Bag, which is slightly different from every one that I've ever recorded before. In that in this episode I'm answering one of your specific questions that was posted on TikTok and the question I'm going to answer came from Suma several months ago and she was specifically asking about accountability. What is accountability? And she explained a specific scenario where she tries to be very empty ethical in her ways of working. She tries to be a great team member and does her best to really collaborate with her colleagues. And at the same time she says things sometimes fall through the cracks and she feels as though her colleagues see this as her not being accountable. So she wants to know what to do about that and how to recover when that happens. So that's what we're going to talk about in today's episode of the Leaders Kitback. So Suma, and for everybody else who's watching and listening, here is my advice. The first thing to share is that accountability at its core is about taking ownership for everything that we do, and that includes the good and the bad. So accountability isn't just about doing what we say we're going to do. It's also about being transparent in our dealings and communication. It is absolutely about being reliable. And perhaps most importantly, it's also about being proactive when things aren't going according to plan. So when things start to fall through the cracks, when perhaps we drop a ball as Suma has described, yes, it can feel to our colleagues as though we aren't being accountable and reliable. But the good news is accountability isn't about never making any mistakes. It's about fixing them and owning up to them when things don't go according to plan. So in order to do that, I've got five key pieces advice for you, Suma, and again, everyone else to help you recover. So the first thing to do is to acknowledge the issue openly and as early as possible. I think it's really important that when we've dropped a ball or we haven't been as reliable as we hoped we would, we need to own up early and do this without attempting to deflect any blame. For example, that could be by simply saying something like I realise I haven't followed up on X and I understand the impact that that has probably had on you and and or your team. The second thing to do is to apologise sincerely. A genuine, heartfelt apology goes a long way. When we are apologizing, it is critical that we absolutely avoid and do not attempt to make any excuses. An apology that includes the word but isn't an apology whatsoever. The third tip I have for you around trying to recover is to explain what went wrong. So to be really clear, we need to make sure we're not deflecting or avoiding responsibility ourselves. But a little context can really help other people explain our situation. For example, you might share something like I'm really sorry for not doing X, I understand the impact it had on you, I failed to fully appreciate the amount of time it would take. Or another example might be you could share how you don't like to say no to anybody or feel like you might let them down. So you find yourself saying yes to everything and then unfortunately, you let people down because you are too busy and too stressed. Provided in that context at least helps people understand. The fourth thing to do is to commit to a solution. So you've owned up, you've apologized, you've provided some context. You then want to tell them what you can do or what you plan do to fix or resolve the situation. Even better than that would be to ask them what you can do to resolve the situation. That might simply be by saying something such as, please tell me what can I do to fix this? And then the fifth and final step, which is really important to prevent you from getting stuck in this cycle, is to learn and adapt. Once you've apologized and resolved the situation, take some time to pause, to step back and reflect, why did this happen? If it's a recurring situation, why does this keep happening? And then really try and work out the root cause. Once you've done that, you can ask for some support or you can find your own development to fix it. For example, if you end up saying yes to everything when you know deep down you can't deliver, might be you want to explore some training or some learning around setting boundaries, being more assertive, being able to say yes, I can help, but not until this time. So there you have it. Suma and everybody else. Five tips to help you recover when you feel as though you may have let a colleague down. If this has been useful, and if you've got any more questions that you'd like me to answer in these leaders kit bag videos, please just drop me a line wherever you happen to be watching or listening, and I'll do my best to do a video in the future to help. That's it for this episode. As always, look after yourself and look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. Until next time, folks. Lead on.