The New York Times, November 23, 2006, Thursday

The New York Times
November 23, 2006 Thursday Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section G; Column 3; Thursday Styles; Pg. 2

HEADLINE: So, You Messed Up. Deal With It. Now.

BYLINE: By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
BODY:
NANCY PELOSI, soon to become the speaker of the House of Representatives, did something recently that plenty of working Americans have done: she made a blunder on the job.
After pushing for an ally, John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, to be made majority leader, despite questions about his ethics, she was rebuffed by fellow Democrats last week, who elected her longtime rival Steny Hoyer of Maryland instead.
Even though Ms. Pelosi will soon be one of the country's most powerful leaders, and the politics of her workplace are on a national scale, her predicament has parallels to the lives of everyday executives who fumble a big opportunity. But when anyone, be it a public figure or a private citizen, suffers a setback in the workplace, can he or she ever really recover?
Yes, business scholars and management consultants say. But it depends on several factors, including the nature of the blunder, the corporate culture, the employee's performance history and the way the employee manages damage control.
This is a particularly appropriate time of year to think about these issues, said Alexandra Levit, a business consultant and the author of ''They Don't Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something's Guide to the Business World,'' because employees inevitably say and do things at office holiday parties that render them too embarrassed to show up at work the next morning.
The first instinct is to ''pretend it didn't happen,'' Ms. Levit said. But ''you're the only one pretending it didn't happen,'' she said. ''Everyone else is talking about it. You need to take control of the spin.''
But some blunders are insurmountable. Scholars say such acts include serious ethical lapses or those that harm the reputation of the company or anybody working there, or result in damage to company property. It is also tough to save one's job or reputation if other employees do not want to continue working with the blunderer, or if the blunder leads to a company scandal.
Employees need only consider Patricia C. Dunn, the former chairwoman of Hewlett-Packard, to understand the snowball effect of decisions gone awry. Just last week she pleaded not guilty to four counts of felony identity theft and fraud for her role in a spying investigation into news leaks by company directors.
But employees guilty of minor errors in judgment or somewhat boorish acts can often hang on to their jobs. In these cases, what matters is not the mistake, but how it is handled. The essential action required to save an employee's job or reputation is taught in grade-school classrooms across the country: Say you are sorry -- and fast.
''The sooner the problem is addressed, the more likely a workable solution can be achieved,'' said Rocco Scanza, the director of Cornell University's Program on Conflict Resolution. ''Timing is critical.''
Heather Bowker, the senior vice president and general manager for Right Management Consultants in San Francisco, shared a story about a supervisor who accidentally sent an e-mail message about an employee's job performance to the employee himself. But, she said, he did the right thing by immediately apologizing, saying, ''This isn't how I'd like you to hear about this.''
Apologizing is the most important step on the road to redemption, business scholars and consultants say. It should be done with composure and humility, and include some statement that the faux pas will not happen again (repeat blunders are far less forgivable). Workers should then overperform to help resurrect their bosses' faith in them, several consultants said.
The worst thing that can happen ''is when people feel you're not learning, you're not open, you're not admitting mistakes and you're blaming other people,'' said Ben Dattner, a principal with Dattner Consulting in Manhattan and an adjunct professor of industrial and organizational psychology at New York University.
Ms. Levit tells of a junior employee at a Fortune 500 company who was accepting gifts from a vendor until he took a company ethics course and learned it was against the rules. ''He was really afraid he was going to get in some serious trouble,'' Ms. Levit said. Still, he went to human resources and admitted what he did. The supervisors there were impressed that he came forward, Ms. Levit said, and he kept his job.
That the man apologized in person was significant. Sending a groveling e-mail message to a superior is poor etiquette. ''It has to be done in a face-to-face setting,'' Mr. Scanza of Cornell said. ''We've come to rely on e-mail for so many things. I don't think it's a particularly effective way of getting problems clarified.''
But, he said, many employees do not own up to mistakes because they fear retaliation or, worse, being fired. So it is up to managers to create an atmosphere in which coming clean does not necessarily mean employees will find themselves mailing out resumes the next day.
Mr. Dattner cited Wernher von Braun, the rocket scientist and former director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. After a Redstone missile failed in flight, an engineer admitted that something he had noticed in a preflight check might have caused the problem. Dr. von Braun did not chastise him. Rather, he sent him a bottle of Champagne to commend him for being honest.
After apologizing for a blunder and considering the lesson it might have imparted, it may be useful to discuss the underlying concern or feeling from which the gaffe originated, said Amy C. Edmondson, a professor of leadership and management and the chairwoman of the doctoral programs at Harvard Business School.
''I couldn't help thinking about John Kerry as the sort of blunder du jour,'' she said. Senator Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, said his flubbed joke last month implying that the troops in Iraq were uneducated was intended to singe President Bush. But it came against a backdrop of what Dr. Edmondson called Mr. Kerry's ''concern about Iraq and a concern about, socially, who is having to go.''
''If one can make an effort to be clear about the issues one feels passionate about,'' she said, ''that is also an important part of the recovery.''
Of course, many blunders are not innocent errors but a result of unseemly behavior, like employees verbally trashing their bosses or competitive colleagues stealing clients.
''The first line of defense is to take the high road whenever possible,'' Dr. Edmondson said. Workplace rivals should instead think, ''What are the things we can get done together?'' she said, because each of their efforts to shine can be sabotaged by being unsupportive.
Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Hoyer appeared to take a page out of that play-nice book when they held hands at a press conference and Ms. Pelosi said, ''Let the healing begin.''
Employees in need of fostering their own healing should know there is an art to apologizing, the consultants said. Do not burst into your boss's office first thing in the morning and blurt it out; schedule an appointment. No tears; stay calm. Do not be overwhelmingly self-critical. And do not expect the boss to completely forgive and forget.
''I think they don't ever forget,'' Ms. Bowker said. ''They bake it into their impression of that person.''
But a blunder is not always a career-killer. Sometimes it is the hallmark of a risk-taker.
''The best skiers are not the ones who don't fall,'' Mr. Dattner said. ''The best skiers are the ones who are willing to stretch their capabilities. And they are likely to fall.''

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GRAPHIC: Drawing (Drawing by Saelee Oh)

[Thanks to Marcia Calicchia for the notification].