Jess Lindgren is a longtime C-Suite assistant, and host of the Ask an Assistant podcast.
In this Ask an Assistant spotlight episode, Jess talks about owning up to mistakes.
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ABOUT JESS
Jess Lindgren has worked in the C-Suite of organizations great and small for 20+ years. She focuses on supporting her current CEO in his many endeavors, improving the relationships between EAs and their Execs, and has very low tolerance for any meeting that should have been an email. Jess hosts the wildly popular* business podcast, Ask An Assistant.
*in her Grandma’s sewing room
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Jeremy Burrows 0:00
Hey, friends, it’s Jeremy Burrows, host of The Leader Assistant Podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. I’m actually excited to put the spotlight on my friend Jess Lindren’s podcast called Ask an Assistant. Jess takes questions from you all and then answers them on the Ask an assistant show. So be sure to go to askanassistant.com to check out more episodes and submit your questions for Jess. I hope you enjoy this spotlight episode of the Ask an assistant show, and we’ll talk to you soon.
Podcast Intro 0:34
The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident game changing, leader assistants. Hello,
Jess Lindgren 1:02
Jess, hello and welcome to another episode of Ask an assistant, the podcast for executive assistants and the people that love us. I’m your host. Jess Lindgren, let’s get to work. Today’s question comes from esteemed colleague Dana, who wrote in via askanassistant.com she says, Jess, yes, it came in with three exclamation points. Jess, I messed up, sparing you the details. It was important, it was expensive, and I am so afraid I’m going to get fired. Any advice would be amazing. Dana, I did email you about this privately in a more time sensitive matter. Hope everything is going well for you and your executive and in the meantime, I thank you for your permission to share my thoughts on the matter in a full editorial calendar time permitting manner here on the podcast, the motto when it comes to mistakes that I have personally lived by for the last 15 plus maybe 20 years, both personally and professionally, is to own up to your mistakes as soon as you catch them. Obviously, you are not going to be the person who always catches every mistake that you make, but I think a lot of us as executive assistants are very high attention to detail. That’s a big skill in the profession, and you know, it happens to the best of us. We all make mistakes. After you acknowledge a mistake, the worst thing that anybody can say after you point it out is, well, she knows she messed up. I mean, there, there are definitely worse things that can happen depending on the severity of the mistake. But I think that many of us, myself included, at times, usually inside my head, I’m like panicking, freaking out when I catch a mistake, and nobody else can tell by my face. I have a good poker face in that regard, but definitely panicking on the inside. But I do think that many of us in the executive assistant profession will resort to letting our minds spiral and go to worst case scenarios faster than perhaps is warranted, what seems like a huge world ending mistake on our part, inside of our brains often are seen as A small, yet fixable mistake from other people’s perspectives. If your executive is a good business person and a good people manager, they will really appreciate your honesty, and it really helps to build trust in your executive assistant to executive relationship going forward, you being a person of high attention to detail, integrity, solid work ethic and creative problem solving, you’ll be showing your executive that you’re not going to just sweep things under the rug, even when they don’t cast you in the best light. The other half of owning up to mistakes is coming to the table with solutions. You noticed whatever it is that you did that was a mistake. What are you going to do to rectify the situation? The good, fast, cheap triangle that we discussed in Episode 17 of this show definitely comes into play here. Dana, you mentioned that your mistake was expensive depending on when that mistake was caught. The solution is either going to be something that you have time to fix. So the solution can be good and expensive, but it won’t need to be fast. Alternatively, if time is of the essence, which it often is when we are discovering our mistakes, you already know that it’s going to be expensive, so the solution will be fast, but likely not ideal or the good arm of the triangle. Let’s just say, for sake of example, that the mistake was that you neglected to rent a car for your executives business trip like they you booked the hotel, you booked everything else that they needed their. Conference ticket meetings with other people. What have you. You forgot to rent a car for whatever reason. Again, happens to the best of us, and there just is not a single rental car to be found for miles after your executive lands. I think I mentioned it in a previous episode. I forget which number off the top of my head, but the one where an executive got stuck in in East Coast state during thunderstorm season, like we’ve all been there when every single hotel room is sold out, every rental car is taken because people’s flights get canceled in Pennsylvania, and they want to drive to Maryland, they want to drive to New York City, you know. So we’ve all been there where there’s literally just not one rental car to be found. The solution when your executive lands of getting a ride share or a private car hire will likely be more expensive than a rental car. Kind of depends on the market. I personally just got back from a trip to Miami, it was actually cheaper for us. We flew in through Fort Lauderdale. I didn’t realize this until, like, the day before we were leaving, that we were in Fort Lauderdale and we were staying in Miami Beach, and I was just like, oh, man, we might need to rent a car, but it turned out like I priced out rideshare. Just popped on the app, changed my location, took a look a couple times throughout the day, and it was honestly cheaper to have somebody else drive us than it was to rent the car, and subsequently need to deal with the car over the course of our week. Like parking in Miami Beach is wild and expensive and complicated, and not having a rental car was just perfect for the trip, you know. So it it’s not ideal, necessarily, like sometimes you it can be more expensive, but again, getting back on track here, because your executive probably didn’t just go to Miami. Your executive is on a business trip the ride share or a private car are probably going to be more expensive than a rental car, but it’s the solution that’s available to you in the moment. It’s fast, it’s expensive, it’s far from ideal, since your executive loses some freedom of movement that a rental car provides, but sometimes in the moment, like maybe your executive can then use that time in the car to make some phone calls or catch up on some emails, or maybe the next day, you can get a rental car, but it’s just not going to be tonight when they land. So again, not ideal, but you work with the circumstances and options that you have after you actually solve the issue again, using the car example, the next time your executive travels, you had best believe that you will rent the car first. Like that, memory of having made the mistake and disappointing or frustrating or stressing your executive out, feeling disappointed in yourself for having even made the mistake. Because that, just as a person who’s been an administrative professional for over 20 years, like that, feels like such a fresh out of college, first year on the job, rookie mistake. But truly, stuff like that happens to people at every stage in their career. It just does. But the memory, the fresh memory, of that mistake, you will take care of that car rental, and you will probably for the rest of your life. Never forget for any personal trips, professional trips, trips you book for other people, it will be burned into your brain. Absolutely, I would like to highly suggest that after you acknowledge the mistake, bring solutions to the table, you’re going to want to take things a step further and develop a travel checklist if you don’t already have one, that can be as complicated as a software solution if you really want one. Honestly, I’m still using the same itinerary from my last full time executive assistant in office jobs. So I’ve been using that travel template for like, 15 years. It’s just a Word document. It. My current executive loves it. He’s just like, hey, my wife absolutely adores these. Please always send them. Hey, Jess going on a personal trip. Could you put one of those itineraries together? My wife just wants all of our information all in one place. Like it’s great. Don’t reinvent the wheel, but definitely get a wheel if you don’t already have one. You know, having that travel checklist is going to give you some peace of mind. It’s also going to let your executive learn to forget and trust that you won’t be forgetting to book the car or any other pieces of the trip in the future, you know, show your executive that you’re taking your mistakes seriously, do your best not to repeat it in the future, and having a travel checklist, or if you have ideas for other systems and processes, that’s really going to go a long way toward giving yourself some peace of mind and giving. Your executive has some peace of mind. Bring them the proposed travel checklist. Ask if there’s anything else that they want you to include for future trips. You know, just because you made the car rental mistake once, maybe there’s a couple other things that they’re just like, hey, I’d really love three restaurant recommendations for when I land, or whatever. Like, just know that it’s also a living document, that it’s something that as you continue to travel and make future mistakes, that you will find ways to improve the document and the system and the process as time goes on.
To recap what I’ve talked to you about today, you’re going to acknowledge the mistake as soon as you’re able, whether you notice it yourself, which I think a lot of us do notice our own mistakes. But again, instead of brushing it under the rug, you just have to bring it to your executives attention, no matter how big or how small, solve the problem to the best of your ability and the available options, because you just every situation is different, every mistake is different. Every time that a mistake is made, your options are going to be different. Flying to Fargo, North Dakota is very different than flying into New York City. So your options are just going to be different, no matter what the situation after you have acknowledged your mistake, after you have solved the issue, in the moment as time allows, you’re going to develop and implement new systems and processes to ensure that that specific mistake won’t happen again. You’re going to make other mistakes, like we all do, but it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to make the same mistake again anytime soon. It’s like when you’re a kid and you touch the hot stove, you learn in the moment not to do it again. You just have to remember that we are all simply human beings doing our best, and while it very well may feel like the end of the world in the moment, with any luck, it is not a fireable offense, and something that you’ll be able to laugh about with your exec in the future. I have certainly made way worse mistakes than neglecting to rent a car in my time as an executive assistant over several different companies, several different executives supported and I’m still standing so that’s it for this week. If you’ve got a question, Lay it on me. Askanassistant.com I’m going to be doing some lives on LinkedIn in the new year. I would love to know if there is a specific date and time that works well for anybody listening. I am certainly planning a like a daytime maybe, like a 10am Pacific kind of thing, and then maybe like a, let’s see, like a 7pm pacific kind of thing. Just to hit more time zones so folks in Australia that you don’t feel left out. Because, yeah, I think a lot of things in the US are just very US centric. And yeah, I want to be in community with everybody who wants to listen and participate. So until then, Dana, I hope that that helped answer your question. I hope that our emails again, hope things are going well for you and your executive hope you’re feeling more confident and like you’re just ready to go, and here at the end of the year, you’re gonna turn a new page, flip a new leaf, whatever you want to call it, in January, and hit the ground running in 2025 so please remember, I firmly believe that the only stupid question is the one that you don’t ask. So askanassistant.com I’d always love to hear from you, and until next week, Take care.
