When life gives you lemons, do you really make lemonade? Meh, I take a moment to pull in my posse. Hey ya all, did I screw this up? Did they screw this up? Or, did we screw this up?
There is something to be said in the service industry for — we are always the ones who screwed up (even when we didn’t).
I was just talking to one of my team members about a time many years ago, a client had let us/me go, because they hired a live, in house person (bravo to them, REALLY!)…
I was doing their news and I made an error while anchoring (it was pre-recorded ya all), I let out a curse word, and continued on. And, oops, I didn’t edit the curse word out and sent the audio to the client for air. What could be worse? We’ve always been taught not to even curse anywhere near a mic, hot or not. But I did, and we all do, at times. Or many of us have… I mean, human! I also didn’t handle myself well, thinking, well you’re done with me anyway, so? But the answer should have been outright mortification!
So we need to bite our proverbial tongue, apologize, and even offer to quit, or if you’re the owner of the company, assign someone new immediately.
There are no two ways about it.