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Learning from Your Mistakes
Someone said that mistakes are the doorways to discovery. Mistakes can provide opportunities for managers to teach, not just to criticize. Every manager can become annoyed by the mistakes their subordinates make. As department manager, your job is limit their frequency and severity of mistakes rather than to eliminate errors - which is impossible. Sometimes, it may seem easier to correct a problem yourself rather than ask others to correct the mistakes they have made. I would suggest you encourage your credit department members to correct their own mistakes. It can be done by asking these questions:
What went wrong? When? Why? What could I have done to prevent it? What measures can I put into place to prevent this problem from recurring?
Errors happen in business every day. When a mistake is made, do the following:
- Address the problem and try to mitigate the impact [the impact on the bottom line, on customer goodwill, on the relationship between credit and sales, etc.];
- Determine the root cause and address that underlying problem;
- Figure out how to prevent the problem from happening again;
- Decide if any policies, procedures, or processes should be changed;
- If the error created a problem for a customer, follow up to make sure the customer has been contacted, the problem resolved and that the customer is satisfied with the timeliness of the response and the solution provided.
One final comment: The most expensive mistakes that any credit department can is one that is repeated rather than corrected.
© 2011 by Michael C. Dennis. All Rights Reserved. Michael is the author of "1001 Collection Tools and Tips."