Sometimes, when an error happens at work, bosses tend to get upset, frustrated, and angry, pointing their finger at the person who made the mistake. “You should have been more careful,” “Why didn’t you check the documents more carefully,” “What were you thinking?” “How many times do I need to explain this to you?” “Why can’t you do anything right?” and the degrading comments can go on and on with no consideration that they are dealing with another human being, just like them.

The question to you is: How do you react as a manager when something goes wrong? Do you get bent out of shape when someone on your team makes a mistake? Take a moment to think about a recent situation and see how you reacted and what you could have done differently to ameliorate the situation.

One thing to recognize is that when mistakes happen, unless you are surrounded by careless and lazy employees who make mistakes all the time (which reflects on your management skills), the person who made the mistake is already feeling bad about it and most probably kicking herself or himself. There’s no need for you to put more salt on the wound. The humane way to deal with situations like this is to remind yourself how many times you too made mistakes that others had to clean up after you. Once you come down to earth, you will realize that we are all human, and mistakes are inevitable. Yes, we should all do our utmost to avoid errors, but they will happen. Now, some errors are more serious than others, and some errors will hurt the company financially or even worse it will affect their reputation. And yet, so long as no one loses his or her life, no mistake is worth making someone feel lousy.

It is a lot easier to lose your temper when someone on your team make a mistake than to remain calm and collected. Always remember that mistakes will happen. Instead of losing it, try to get the details as to what went wrong, and determine how the problem can be fixed as quickly as possible to minimize any negative effect to the company. Then, focus on why the mistake happened in the first place so that you can identify  the root cause, which can then help you and your team figure out a way not to repeat the same mistake again.

It’s not the mistakes, but how you handle them is what defines you.