Making mistakes is not a problem. Being dishonest about it is.

Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. It is just part of life. When we make a mistake, we have the chance to learn from it so it does not happen again. 

Sometimes when people make mistakes they don’t want others to know about it so they try to hide it or lie about it to avoid taking the blame for what happened. It is understandable when people do this because they are trying to save themselves from embarrassment or from consequence. They don’t want others to know they made a mistake because they feel others will think less of them because of it.

I would argue that this is the wrong approach and that being honest about it and telling the truth is a much better way to address a mistake. Sure if you lie about it and no one finds out the truth, you might get away with it. However if you lie about it and the truth is found out, now not only will you be judged on making the mistake but now also on lying about it which is worse.

The reason it is worse is because being dishonest is a personal choice. It is something you have control over and by lying, it also means you can no longer be trusted. Trust is incredibly important in all aspects of life. When you are trustworthy, people can depend on you and that makes you valuable. If you can’t be trusted, people can’t really take you for your word anymore and that means people will always question whether you are telling the truth or not.

When you make a mistake, it is better to just own it and tell the truth rather than try to hide it and end up making things worse for yourself. 

This topic was on my mind because I have dealt with this situation frequently at work. I will ask someone about a mistake that was made and they act like they don’t know anything about it. Then later I find out that it was in fact their mistake and they were not truthful about it. In these cases, I would much rather they had just been honest in the first place. It would not have been a big deal at all, but since they lied about it, now I know I can’t trust them, and that has a huge negative effect on how I see them as an employee and as a person in general. 

As tempting as it may me to try to hide a mistake, in the long run, it is better to just be honest about it. Mistakes happen. It is part of life and often times it cannot be avoided no matter how careful we are. It is how we choose to react when these mistakes happen that will determine if we are someone who can be trusted or not.