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What to Do When One of Your Painters Make a Mistake

Hi Guys, Greg here from DYB.

Today I wanted to share a little confession with you about something that changed in my paradigm, which really improved the culture of my company.

When I first started, I was really rigid, and my expectations were very high of my employees, and when they would make mistakes, I would get angry about it and be emotional and get upset.

I overheard a conversation one day after I did a review with one of my guys, he walked out the door to another employee, and he said, “That guy can make you feel like you don’t fit your own shoe”.

It snapped a twig in my mind, and I realized that I was setting the bar way too high and I wasn’t giving them room for growth.

So, fast-forward to a few years later, and I have completely adjusted the way that I handle mistakes, and I believe you can learn from my experience.

When An Employee Makes a Mistake, Don’t Lose Your “Cool”

When an employee makes a mistake, we still discuss it, but I never lose my “cool”, I encourage them to tell me about the mistake so that I can help them plan for the future and not have it happen again.

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I would tell you right now that humbling up and doing this has completely changed the relationships that I have with my employees.

They are not afraid to call me when anything happens whereas, sometimes when you are aggressive and angry at people, they tend to shut down, they don’t want to tell you things that happen.

I have learned so much about jobs and mistakes and little things that happen that we have been able to train on, just because of this one little shift in the way that I behaved.

Develop Trust with Your Employees

It’s a totally different mindset than I used to have; you have to develop trust with your employees.

We’ve all made mistakes as business owners, we have to own them, just the same as employees do.

And if you have somebody who is making a reoccurring mistake over and over again, then you make a decision on your discretion.

But all I am saying is that employees that infrequently make mistakes and don’t have recurring of the same incident are people that you should put your faith into and trust them to grow.

Give them the opportunity to be honest and culture that into your business and see how much that changes for you –It did for me.

I hope this is helpful for you guys!

Thank you for dropping by. Follow us on YouTube at “DYB Coach”, we also have a podcast on iTunes; “DYB Podcast”

If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment below!

About the Author

As a newly single father of two from MI, he struggled to start over as a paint contractor in FL, going door to door. His situation was so bad, even the IRS had mercy on him.

 Feeling completely hopeless, he remembered the story of King Solomon praying for wisdom. Could it be so easy? 

He felt he had absolutely nothing to lose. So, as a bankrupt, divorced, high school dropout, single father of 2 young kids, now living 1250 miles away from all friends and family, started to pray for wisdom.
 And while he continues to wait for the wisdom to arrive, what did come was an insatiable desire to learn and read books… 
Thanks to God for giving him the burning passion to read books, and attend seminars, (oh and winning the wife lottery) he not only cracks the success code and overcomes the struggle, but also streamlines his painting business in less than 3 years, published a how to book, then sold the company. Now he leads a business coaching company for painting contractors so he can help other businesses, like yours, to do the same. Hear more... http://www.DYBCoach.com/01 Or JoinDYB.com