Let me Share some light on a simple strategy, which will help you deal with your mistakes in a responsible and efficient way.
Mindset
First and foremost, you should understand this fact:
There is no experience without failure.
Give it some time to settle in your head.
Done? Ok.
Now the next fact:
It is not a real problem if you have made a mistake.
It is a problem if you have not fixed the consequences.
Are you ok with that idea?
Then, here is the third one:
It is you who is in charge for fixing negative effects you have caused.
This is actually what distinguish a responsible person – she can deal with unforeseen events and respond to them in a sane way.
So what should I do?
Obviously, you should fix the problem.
Also, you should try to keep all the “involved parties” happy.
And here is a general overview of the things you need to do:
- Do not wait for a command to fix everything. Fix it!
Be proactive, but let everybody know that there is a problem. - Inform all your involved colleagues that your are dealing with the problem. This will add some certainty and calm people down.
- Inform the affected users that there is a problem and you are solving it.
This helps to build good relationships with end users.
Do not be afraid to show the problem – people love openness and they tend to forgive soon. - Ask others for help of guidance if you are in doubt!
Do not make things worse if you are not sure what to do. - Escalate the problem, if you cannot make a decision!
If you manager will bark at you – then he is just a motherfucker (or simply had a bad mood). You will deal with that later.
The foremost target is to fix the problem, so that people do not suffer. - Analyze the cause of the mistake.
Do you understand how does your system work?
Did you have all the necessary knowledge?
How to prevent the same issue from happening again?