See? Good stuff. Just the kind of thing to make you look at your work in a fresh light.

Happy Monday! Make it a great week.

photo credit: Pylon757

Have you ever worked hard on a project only to find that parts of your work were thrown away, or the whole project was cut for lack of funding or any other reason? Of course you have – it’s an experience nearly as common as encountering an empty coffee pot in the break room.

I bet it’s tempting to feel irritated or even angry when your work is “wasted.”

But thinking about it further, when is our work ever really wasted? Don’t we become better at what we do with each effort we make, and more apt to do it better the next time? Doesn’t that knowledge make us better at estimating how much projects will cost, how long work will take, how well we can expect the results to come out, and so on? And isn’t there often a chance to reuse and recycle some of the core pieces of that work into something else down the road?

Keep striving for excellence, and keep seeking the good in every situation, and guess what? You will find both.

Happy Monday!

What did you think? Tell us in the comments.

photo credit: plindberg

I was looking at a quote this morning…

Now bear with me. I know all the workplace motivational posters and feel-good quotes in email signatures get a bit much sometimes, but I still love a good quote and I do keep a collection in Evernote for reference. So much wisdom can come through in such a short space.

Such as this one I just glanced at and was struck again by:

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. – Niels Bohr

Along similar lines, I have a magnet that I keep near my desk that says:

Always make new mistakes.

I also keep a sign nearby that I was given when I worked in Germany that has an image of Snoopy (hey, it was a gift) and says (in German) something like:

As long as you learn new tricks, no one can call you an old dog.

My point is: learning and mistakes go hand in hand. What’s more, screwing up at work isn’t nearly as big a deal if you know how to recover from it. When you’ve made a mistake, if you admit to it immediately, apologize humbly, and help clean up your messes, you not only minimize the chance of being penalized for your error, but you’ve helped the organization learn from your mistake, too (even if no one else sees it that way initially).

photo credit: wotthe7734

To be clear, I’m talking about on-the-job learning and the mistakes that come from taking risks in your field, not about things like violating company policies out of carelessness, or showing up late to work.

I’m talking about facing a problem in your work and trying to think of the best way to solve it, and if the best solution you can think of is untried, try it.

Yes, you may fail.

But if you don’t allow yourself the risk of failure, how do you ever truly learn anything new?

And if you succeed, you could win big. You have not only chosen to do the thing you believed was best (something that can feel in itself like a reward), but you have shown the business something new. You and the rest of the company have learned. You might have even created a new best practice in your field.

Niels Bohr would approve.

So I leave you with this question: are you making enough mistakes?

Made any good mistakes lately? Tell us what you learned!

What’s your favorite quote? Tell us in the comments. We may feature it and credit you for sharing it!

BusinessWeek talks about how to handle those cases. True to our philosophy of being the change you wish to see, here’s what stood out to us:

Your boss will betray your trust, then tell you to stay positive. Your boss will chastise you for your behavior, then act the same way. Sure, you can quit, but have you gained anything besides an ulcer? Instead, make the most of your time. Focus on gaining the right experience, building your interpersonal skills, and policing your attitude. They are your ticket out. Absorb those daily humiliations, so you never become like your boss. Most important, don’t write off the message because of the messenger. Your boss didn’t reach this level by accident. Be open to criticisms and suggestions. You’ll likely miss some valuable nuggets if you completely tune out your boss.

Personally, I would have to agree. I’ve had a series of bad bosses, and have learned something from all of them. If nothing else, as the excerpt above suggests, I learned how to be a better boss myself by not doing what these people did.

What have you learned from bad boss experiences? Tell us in the comments.