As administrative professionals, we aim for excellence in everything we do. It is common for the executives we support to assume we are perfect from our very first day on the job. However, we will inevitably make mistakes that reveal we are fallible.
I learned this early in my career with my executive and decided to keep a journal titled, “I will never do THAT again!” I sometimes I revisited it to reflect on lessons I had learned and to remind myself that I am human and, at times, not perfect.
In the words of Joan Collins, “Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you someone who has never achieved much!”
Take, for example, the story of Janice, a Senior Executive Assistant. Her executive assigned her to create some cool T-shirts to distribute to his direct staff at their upcoming meeting. The company was rebranding its logo, and he was quite proud of how it turned out and wanted his team to wear shirts to highlight the new logo.
She was under pressure. With a tight deadline, there was much to do to complete the task. She needed to research a vendor, negotiate a fair price, provide the specifications, and then have them printed and shipped to her ASAP before the staff meeting the following week.
She ultimately found a vendor who indicated they could make this miracle happen. The vendor was ecstatic about supporting her needs.
A day before the T-shirts were scheduled to arrive, Janice received a call from the accounts payable department. They were asking about a purchase order she had placed for the company's T-shirts. The order was for 25 T-shirts. The accounts payable manager was quite upset with her and asked, 'How could 25 T-shirts come to that much money?!” Janice was taken aback by the manager’s gruffness. She had definitely done her due diligence in shopping for a vendor who could have them printed and delivered on such short notice, and felt this was all included in getting the best price, and of course, she had signed a contract with the vendor just that week.
As it turned out, in her rush to submit the purchase order into the system and order the T-shirts before the staff meeting, she had accidentally added an extra zero! The purchase order amount was $100,000! It was clear why the vendor had been so excited about the business.
With a very humbling, apologetic call, she persuaded the vendor to significantly reduce the price in exchange for the promise of future business. She leaned back in her chair and exhaled a heavy, relieved sigh. After all, her mistake could have easily cost the company a lot of money, caused legal issues with the vendor, or worse, truly limited her own career growth.
After the initial shock finally wore off, she made a note in her “I’ll never do that again” journal and asked for a copy of the original Purchase order to frame as a reminder to be more diligent in the future.
As administrative professionals, we are sometimes asked to perform miracles under intense pressure. However, we also need to learn to slow down, focus on the deadline AND the details before executing the task. And when we do make a mistake, make a note not to ever do “that” again!