When your staff messes up, do they feel safe?

I still remember the look on her face.

My office manager walked into my office—white in the face, trembling—and blurted out, “I messed up payroll.”

She’d made a big mistake.

It wasn’t a small rounding error. It was possible people weren’t going to get paid on time.

At that moment, I had every reason to question how she let this happen. 

To wonder if I’d made a mistake by trusting her.

I didn’t do any of that.

Instead, I paused, took a breath, and said, “Okay. Let’s fix it.”

Because what she needed at that moment wasn’t punishment.

She needed to know I had her back.

We walked through it together, and in the end, payroll was only a day late.

Crisis averted. Trust preserved.

As a practice owner, there will be days when it feels like the world is falling apart, especially when someone on your team makes a big mistake.

How you respond is what defines your culture.

If your staff is terrified of messing up, they won’t take initiative.

They won’t tell you when something’s going wrong.

And they certainly won’t grow into leaders themselves.

You can’t have a strong practice without a safe team.

If you want to hear me tell the full story—including the part where I almost lost my cool—you can watch the short clip here: