SmallBizResource Blog -- SmallBizResource

Lessons From Detroit (Part 2): You Screwed Up -- Now What?

Posted by Gayle Kesten Monday, Dec 22, 2008, 10:31 AM ET

I hate being late. In college, I'd sooner skip a class than walk in five minutes after the professor began his lecture. In the work world, blowing off a meeting because you're behind the eight-ball is, of course, an option, but not one I'd suggest. My recommendation involves one tail and two legs.

Like the time I miscalculated the drive to an off-site department meeting. I called my manager from the road to let him know I was en route, but in the end 50 people (100 eyes) watched me walk in the room 20 minutes (1,200 seconds) late. During a break, I approached the department president (my boss' boss), to whom I apologized PROFUSELY and confessed my goof. Thankfully, he was gracious and understanding. Then the meeting resumed and the world kept on spinning.

According to a recent article from Harvard Business Publishing, I handled a bad situation the right way. Doing so helps regain trust. You don't have to fly a private jet to ask Congress for a hand-, I mean, bailout, to qualify for the lesson. (By the way, Wall Street execs continue to fly in luxury.) Trust is perhaps the biggest selling point small-business owners have going for them, so should you just plain and simple screw up, these three tips will serve you well:

• Be sincerely willing to talk -- and act -- differently: This may mean changing the way you conduct business and letting go the people who don't represent your business' best interest. "Just as the change needs to be transformational, so, too, must the communications. Truth-telling will be particularly important when faced with these tough circumstances," says Kathy Bloomgarden, author of the article and co-CEO of Ruder Finn, a PR agency based in New York.

• Understand the context and present a fact-based case: The Big 3 automakers were criticized for jumping on the bailout bandwagon without solid proof "documenting how their failure would further drive deterioration of the U.S. economy," Bloomgarden states. For a small-business owner fighting to retain a client's business, be proactive in your approach and (respectively and humbly) remind your customer why he chose you over your competitors in the first place.

• Admit mistakes and take the blame: My feeling is the way a problem is handled speaks more than the problem itself. (I also blogged about this in May). Says Bloomgarden -- who doesn't think GM CEO Rick Wagoner did such a great job at that on his return trip to D.C.: "Knowing when to accept blame is a delicate art that forces the best leaders to walk a line between showing strength in self-appraisal while airing their weaknesses."

What about you? What do you do to right a wrong?

SmallBizResource