In today’s Inside Higher Ed, Maria Stewart addresses perfectionism and the inability to acknowledge mistakes. The article couldn’t come at a better time because I’ve seen a few examples lately of folks in our field aiming to defy reality:

Student affairs professionals are not superhuman. We make mistakes.

I believe Dr. Stewart’s points apply well to us: admit the mistake, explain the reason why it was mad, determine how it will not happen again, and seek forgiveness. These are all things we can do better. We can be transparent about our faults. We can receive forgiveness and deal with those who will  not accept our apology. I think the biggest problem is when we are called for the mistake and then our hubris emerges: it was not a mistake. It was someone else’s fault.

And we make the same mistake again.

When considering our competence and confidence to do this work, we have a lot of expectations on us: attend to the distinct needs of diverse populations of students while also doing what is best for all. We have to mitigate risk and attend to the law. We have to abide by ethical principles. We have to act in alignment with student affairs values and principles. If we are doing these things, making the effort, and the mistake happens, then we learn from it and move on.

I believe that if we ground our work in an intentional way and exercise due diligence, then when the mistake occurs most will be willing to forgive and most likely the majority will at least forget.

What have been your mistakes? How did you move on from the mistake? What did you learn?