Handling mistakes with Compassionship™

Compassionship™ is about embracing humanity. Understanding and celebrating our humanness is the key to being happy and productive, at home and at work. Even in the best teams, it’s inevitable that people will make mistakes, create unintended outcomes, and disappoint each other. Embracing the concept of Compassionship™ when mistakes are made means you do these four essential things.

First, Compassionship™ stands for delivering succinct, clear, constructive feedback. Making mistakes can come from ignorance, trying to rush through something, insufficient processes, or insufficient training. Regardless of the cause, direct feedback on what was done or not done, and what is needed to improve and create the intended or expected outcomes is paramount. This is done to empower the people on your team, and to be compassionate for the people AND the knowledge your team needs to succeed.

Creating learning moments when mistakes occur is another tenet of Compassionship™. Taking the approach of ‘we have something to learn’ and investigating what that is reflects compassion in a meaningful way. Done properly, with mindful enquiry, honest sharing and listening to the perspectives of your team members, mistakes can become a catalyst for notable improvements.

Compassionship™ means recognising the intent of the person who made a mistake and evaluating that with greater weight than the error itself. Sometimes people will make mistakes with clearly positive intent. However, intent that’s out of alignment with your objectives creates a very significant learning moment. The understanding of your mission as well as how you work with others may be in the balance. Investigating the source of that misdirected intent, and how it came to influence actions taken is key to dealing with the situation with appropriate compassion.

Compassionship™ means eliminating ‘sugar coating’ on news and viewpoints you share. This doesn’t mean you don’t have empathy and should deliver uncomfortable news or viewpoints without sensitivity. It means you are not hesitant to ‘put your truth on the table about what you find disappointing and what you expect if actions or attitudes need to change. Be clear, let people know where you stand, and encourage others to share the same with you as a leader.

Take these approaches, and mistakes can be dealt with, while embracing the importance of humanity and the mission of your organisation.

If you want to know more about Compassionship – Compassion Based Leadership™, including workshops and coaching, contact Gwen Pinnington Consulting & Coaching at info@gwenpinnington.com.

We stand for Compassion Based Leadership™, that is in service to ourselves and others. Our commitment is to facilitate individual and collective effectiveness in others that is sustainable and based in a higher-level consciousness so that people and communities can thrive.