By Rachel Weingarten
Keeping your career on track is a challenge. In this series, we’ll look at what it takes to survive - and thrive - in 2015! This post touches on that sensitive topic: what to do when you experience “the worst thing that can happen” at the office.
We’ve all had them: those monumental work mess-ups that are so awful, it seems as though nothing can help us get back on track again. So how can you get past the agony and potential humiliation of a work disaster and turn it from a potential career killer into an important lesson learned? It’s not easy, but it is doable.
1. Find A Silver Lining As a budding entrepreneur, Naked Wines’ CEO Rowan Gormley was fortunate enough to work with businessman extraordinaire Richard Branson on several startups and ventures. But Rowan’s biggest undertaking from Branson — to launch and grow Virgin Wines — was a complete disaster, and it was only a matter of time before the company tanked. Gormley says “the second biggest break I ever got was working for Richard Branson.” Working with one of the most famous entrepreneurs on the planet seems like a dream come true, so what could be better than that?
Gormley says “That was my second biggest break. The BIGGEST break I ever got was being fired from Virgin Wines (not by Richard, we had sold it by then).” Gormley elaborates “When I got fired, 17 other people left and together we launched NakedWines.com, which has gone on to become massively more successful, and a lot more fun, than I ever would have had, had I not been fired.”
Not many people get the opportunity to redo a startup, and Gormley’s takeaway was fine-tuning his experience and learning how to create a successful venture using his acquired talents and experience. He had “this time to do it right, with all the lessons and all the good people from the first time around…but with a clean sheet, no legacy systems.”
Losing the opportunity of a lifetime might not always be the worst thing to happen. By examining what your new experience, skills, and connections are, you might be able to create a better result the second time around.
What do you think is the worst thing that could happen in your career?
2. Choose A More Tactful Approach Silicon Valley executive coach Jennifer Selby Long, who advises clients including
If you think someone is whispering behind your back to your boss or supervisor, Selby says to set aside any bias and “begin by assuming that the other individual doesn't feel comfortable talking with you directly—and that you will make changes to how you behave so that he or she becomes much more trusting.”
If you’re not sure how to approach them, Selby says to try to talk to them to figure out how to come to an agreement. She advises people to ask for their adversarial co-worker’s perspective, listen closely, share the aspects of his or her perspective with which you agree, and then ask to work together to tackle those areas where you disagree. In this way, “they will turn a career-stalling relationship into a strong working relationship, and prove to the boss that they have what it takes to work well with everyone, not just with the people who are easy-going.”
By publicly acknowledging the issue, you’re also showing that you’re a team player willing to actively improve an uncomfortable situation instead of choosing to follow suit and gripe behind someone else’s back.
3. Set Up a Contingency Plan Picture this – not only have you landed your dream job, but you’re also fortunate enough to be working with your dream mentor. And then they become involved in the professional scandal of the century and manage to tarnish your reputation along with their own. Or do they? Before your assume that your career is completely over, try to figure out exactly how far the scandal has spread and if your own career is actually in jeopardy.
David Lewis, President/CEO of OperationsInc.com, says that when a powerful executive you’ve aligned yourself with is fired, you should try to find out if there’s a “guilt by association” scenario. He says “the answer here is mostly about accepting the way things played out, inquiring with the powers that be about your standing and their view of you, and then focusing on performance vs. perception.” So keep doing the best job possible to show that you are not the person you’ve been working with. Hopefully, you’ll be able to rescue your own reputation and ultimately your career and long-term prospects.
It’s important to always realize that you are the strongest protector and advocate of your own brand and reputation. It’s crucial to realize that aligning yourself with the wrong person or brand can have long-term negative results if you don’t pay attention to the way they are managing their own brand.
There are so many ways that your work life can be negatively impacted on a daily basis. The key is not to pretend that the setbacks never happened, but to plan in advance to preempt them or to try to turn the negative into a positive. We can all take to heart the lesson Gormley learned: “Sometimes the silver lining is bigger than the cloud.”
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The Top 6 Networking Turn-offs And How To Improve Body Language And Attitude is the other published article in this series.
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Additional Reading:
2. Think You Don’t Work In Information Security? Think Again!
3. 5 Reasons The Chief Information Officer (CIO) Matters More Than Ever
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Rachel Weingarten writes most frequently about business and style and the business of style. She’s also the author of three non-fiction books. Visit Rachel at http://byrachelweingarten.com or tweet with her @rachelcw.
