The Reply-All Mistake

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Leadership   ProjectsAtWork  

Our mistakes don’t define us as people or as professionals; rather it is our ability to recover from them that makes us who we are. So don’t ignore your mistakes, or hang your head in self-pity. Acknowledge and address them, then move forward. It’s a huge step in evolving as a leader.

I had just sat down on my commuter train and pulled out my laptop to start writing this article when I got an e-mail. It was an announcement from one of my customers to the stakeholders in her organization of a new role that I would be undertaking with them. I have a great relationship with her, so I immediately hit reply with a ‘WooHoo’ and a couple of lighthearted comments — nothing inappropriate, just not really the serious, suit-wearing consultant that I like to portray.

Two minutes later she replied: “Did you mean to reply all?”

Darn!  Drat!  Bother! (Of course that’s all I said, I was sitting on a train with a bunch of other people.)

I felt the color draining from my face, I was half expecting the person sitting opposite me to ask whether I was OK (of course I’m not OK, I just proved to 50 people that I’m an idiot). I checked the e-mail to make sure that I really had done something that stupid (I had) and then my mind started whirring with what I could do. It was too late to recall the e-mail, that would just make …

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