Skip to main content

Reader Challenge #4: Be Extra Nice to the Next Person Who Makes a Mistake

We've all had an experience where somebody made a mistake. A waiter brings out a pizza that clearly that doesn't have the right toppings. A clerk gets us an article of clothing that is the wrong size. A family member picks up the wrong brand of something at the grocery store. (That last one is usually me doing the screwing up!)

Life happens. Mistakes are made. Most of the time, those mistakes aren't made intentionally, so why do we tend to get angry at these people? It baffles me because the person didn't have ill intentions, yet we feel it necessary to retaliate against them. I know when I make a mistake, I already feel bad for having made that mistake. Getting angry only makes that person feel doubly bad.

 So instead of getting angry at that person, my challenge to you this week is to do the opposite: be nice to them. I'll take it a step further and encourage you be extra nice to them. This helps to establish what Michael Scott would refer to as a win-win-WIN situation. Allow me to explain:

  • The first win: It makes the person who made a mistake feel better. They know they screwed up, so it's nice that somebody is cutting them a break.
  • The second win: It makes you feel better. You chose to take the moral high ground, and you should feel a little sense of pride that you made somebody's day brighter.
  • The third win: It helps those after you. This might not occur to you right away, but you're setting a precedent for those who made a mistake. If you choose to retaliate against the "mistaker", then that person is more apt to be bummed out for the rest of the day, causing lesser productivity or lesser quality work. It screws over the people coming after you. Conversely, if you make the "mistaker's" day a little brighter by being extra nice to them, they are more likely to have an upbeat day, increasing their productivity and higher quality of work. And that helps out the people coming after you. Yay!
For me, personally, I find that it takes more energy to get angry. It really doesn't help anything or anybody to get angry. So just be nice. It's the right thing to do.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beware the Grammar Police

We all know those folks. The people who persistently point out where a comma was misplaced, where a word was misspelled, and where something wasn't properly capitalized. Mistakes happen, and spelling / grammar is definitely important. But when a person takes it upon themselves to start correcting these minor mistakes, there is a much deeper problem going on.
Post a Comment
Read more

Decision Fatigue and Five Tips to Avert It

One of the best things about living in Bloomington-Normal is the diversity of restaurant choices we have to choose from. Want one of the big chains? We've probably got it. Nice local restaurants? Yup. Italian, Chinese, American, Thai, and Indian places? Check. Ironically, one of the worst things about living in Bloomington-Normal is, you guessed it, the diversity of restaurant choices we have to choose from.
Post a Comment
Read more

Five Undergrad Courses I Wish I Could Retake

Education is a tricky thing. Many jobs require you to learn things prior to you getting on the job, but sometimes, that education is more valued in retrospect. What is and what isn't valuable gets especially lost in four year degrees that mandate something like 130 credit hours for graduation. A college isn't going to tell you, "These classes are important, and these classes... not so much." To be fair to colleges, value is a subjective thing. What I might have found valuable might be different to somebody else. This is especially true for a more general major like mine, Business Administration. I took courses in macroeconomics, marketing, communications, finance, accounting, HR management, and more. If you go ask my fellow graduates which courses they valued the most, I bet every one of them would give you different answers. Anyway, I was reflecting back on my own undergraduate education and thinking about the classes I wish I could go retake. It's not that I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Redeeming Rob Bell

Well, that's probably a name you heard in a while! For those of you not familiar with that name, Rob Bell was (and kind of still is?) a big name in the Christian community. He is the former megachurch founder and pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, wrote widely read books Sex God  and Velvet Elvis , and is probably most widely known for his NOOMA video series. In 2011, Rob Bell had a big falling out with the Christian community following the release of his book, Love Wins . In that book, he contended that people would be able to accept Jesus and enter heaven after death in addition to before death, which many people misconstrued as universalism. (Which is not particularly right... but I can see why people would draw that conclusion.) Having attended a Christian school at the time, I was right in the thick of the controversy. People freaked out. Having been looked at as a Christian hero in the community for the longest time, people were floored with the sentiments shared in Love...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Problem with Hierarchical Hiring

I browse LinkedIn pretty often, and the category of things that appears most on that main feed are inspirational quotes by inspirational leaders. Folks like Richard Branson and Simon Sinek appear most often. More specifically, the quotes have a central theme to them: companies need to hire good people.  For example, one of the latest quotes I've seen on my feed include this one from Tina Fey: "In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and getting out of their way." That's a great sentiment, but is that really reinforced in reality?
Post a Comment
Read more