Don't Fix Their Mistakes

Here's a good rule to follow whenever an employee makes a mistake. If it's a work in progress, do not take the work away from the employee. Do not fix it yourself or let someone else fix it. If the work has been moved to another area where the mistake is caught, do not let someone else fix the mistake while no feedback is given to the person who made the mistake.

When other people fix their mistakes, employees soon learn not to be too concerned about mistakes because other people will fix them. When people aren't told of their mistakes they will naturally think the work was correct and have no reason to think otherwise.

It's always a good practice to have the person who makes a mistake correct the mistake. Follow the model of one major tax preparation firm. Tax preparers complete a tax return and send it to a checking department. Mistakes are identified and noted on the return which is then sent back to the preparer for correction and resubmission to the checking department. The checking department never corrects errors. That company knows, and so should you, that people who are responsible for fixing their own mistakes quickly learn not to make those mistakes.

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Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
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