This is especially important if you’re in a workplace setting. Flying off the handle isn’t professional, and you want your coworkers or employees to see how well you handle a slip-up.
“Hey Mark! I really appreciate you getting those reports on my desk so quickly. ” “Allison, it’s good to see you. You’re always so punctual, and I’m really grateful for that. ”
“I’m a little curious as to why you didn’t include the statistics in your latest report. ” “Would you mind explaining why this client’s account is closed?”
“It looks like the numbers from last quarter were not included in this report, which skewed all the data. ” “Since the reports were turned in late, we lost a large client. ”
Instead of saying, “If you didn’t rush so much, you would have caught this,” try, “I think that some errors were left in, which made our company look a little sloppy. ” Instead of saying, “You need to be more personable and friendly,” try, “By using different phrases and a kinder tone, you can make your clients feel more at ease. ”
“Could you explain how this slipped through the cracks?” “Can you walk me through what went wrong here?”
Make eye contact and nod along with them to show that you’re listening. Ask follow-up questions like, “Can you tell me more?” or, “I’m not sure I understand. Could you explain that?”
“In the future, I’d suggest dedicating 1 hour per day to this task. That way, you don’t have to rush to finish it at the end of the week. ” “Maybe next time you could check in with a coworker if you don’t understand something. ”
“What you can do is just go in and add the statistics from this quarter. That way, the report will be accurate. ” “All you need to do is call the client and ask them to reschedule. ”
“I can go ahead and help you out if you need it. You just let me know what I can do, okay?” “I’ll take the first half, you take the last half. If we work together, we can bust out these reports by Friday. ”
“Well, at least now you know! You probably won’t be making that mistake again, huh?” “Even though the reports got messed up, at least you know how to enter in those statistics now!”
