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Create an apology-friendly workplace
By Lauren | August 14, 2009
Continuing my Friday series about keeping your business out of court, here’s a tip that may surprise you. To reduce your litigation risk, make sure you establish and maintain a workplace where it’s safe for your employees to apologize. Why? Read on:
Lawsuits frequently occur because someone in a company makes a relatively minor mistake but is afraid to admit it to management. (If you’ve got a hair-trigger temper, I’ll practically guarantee that your employees are hiding their mistakes from you to avoid getting chewed out or fired.) Frightened employees sometimes try to resolve problems themselves, and sometimes just hide problems in the hope that they’ll go away. Apology calls get put off, complaint letters get shredded, time goes by, and the customer’s irritation grows until he stomps out and hires a lawyer. In some cases, you may not even find out about the original problem until the complaint has been filed and you’ve had to hire an attorney to defend you and your company.
No matter how diligent your employees are, they’re going to make mistakes sometimes (and, incidentally, so are you). But if your employees are afraid to tell you about those mistakes when they first occur, you may remain ignorant until a minor mess has blown up into a full-scale disaster. At that point, you’ll find it much more difficult to satisfy your customer-turned-plaintiff than it would have been to fix the original error.
Let your employees know that you want them to work to the best of their ability, but that you don’t expect perfection and won’t “shoot the messenger” if they admit to error and apologize. Then, follow up by being reasonable and supportive when employees actually find the courage to tell you something’s gone wrong. If employees know that they can trust you not to overreact when they admit their mistakes, you’ll be in a much better position to fix minor problems before they turn into massive lawsuits.
For ideas on how to create an apology-friendly workplace, check out my book, The Art of the Apology — How to Apologize Effectively to Practically Anyone.
Topics: Apologies, Business Ethics, business communications, customer relations, ethics |