I was buried in my work, writing a macro in Excel that was going to save me hours of work.  An employee of the firm I consult with dropped by my desk and asked if I could sacrifice a few minutes and help him out.  I wasn't at a good place to stop, but if you saw the fear in his face, you would stop whatever you were doing just to hear what he was so worried about.  As it turns out, our wonderful medium of communicating instantly with others, Instant Messaging (IM), fell victim to a bad incident of misdirected communication.

This nice employee had reached a boiling point with a supervisor he was trying to illicit help from.  Earlier that day, a fellow co-worker had a run-in with the same supervisor who was obviously having a bad day and taking it out on everyone else.  The two employees, the one from earlier in the day and this worried person in front of me had talked about the supervisor and his foul mood.  Not minutes later, there was another exchange between this worried employee and the supervisor via Instant Messaging.

In the heat of the moment, this worried soul began to vent via IM to the other disgruntled employee about the manner in which this supervisor was treating him.  In the IM, he even called the supervisor a derogatory name.  He pressed send and then realized the mistake.  The IM was sent directly to the supervisor he was railing on and not to the intended receiver, the other employee.

So that was why he had beads of sweat on his brow and looked pale and ready to toss his cookies.  "What do I do?" he asked me.

My advice was not my own, but I have found this advice to be true and sound in any circumstance in life.  In his book, How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie has a chapter entitled "If You're Wrong, Admit It".  I remember this chapter well as I have used this strategy in my life, constantly.  The gist is that if you are wrong, go admit it and fix it as soon as possible, don't wait, do it now.

So I responded "You need to go talk to the supervisor immediately.  Do not wait another minute.  Go now and admit what you did was wrong and tell him you are sorry and that you will not do it again."

This worried employee needed a little more encouragement to go confront this supervisor, but finally went.  When the two came out of the impromptu meeting, there was relief on the worried employees face and things seemed to be worked out.  It was hard for this guy to face up to what he had done, but there was more respect built having lived through the experience between the two involved than there would have been had he not taken action and resolved the mistake.

Lesson learned: If you are wrong, admit it.  You may be able to turn a mistake into a positive experience.