Last week I wrote about how important it is to distinguish yourself from other professionals beyond technical competence. Clients already assume you’re competent because you have a license and you’re in business with other clients. Therefore, you have to communicate how you’re different from your colleagues or else you will be perceived as the same as everyone else. That may not sound so bad, but you make yourself generic and easily replaceable, which isn’t true at all.

I recommended you do two things to accelerate your difference. The first factor is how you respond to conflict. It reveals to those around you something memorable about you. You can read responding to conflict in last week’s message here.

The other “r” is how you recover from mistakes. Troy Waugh, friend and founder of The Rainmaker Academy, taught me two truths about recovery that I’ve never forgotten. First, even when the client is wrong and your are right, the client’s viewpoint will prevail. Try arguing with a client. Even if you win, you lose. You can be right and still need to recover in some way.

The second truth is that you create a memorable moment when you recover well. One of my clients goes all out when his firm makes a mistake. The firm’s reputation is accentuated when clients tell their friends and colleagues of how this firm went the extra mile to right a mistake. As a result, the firm enjoys high client satisfaction and retention.   

How do you recover from mistakes? Are you humble? Do you accept full responsibility? Do you do whatever it takes to make it right?  Or do you do the opposite by offering lame excuses, blame others or shrug your shoulders and walk away? The way of assuming responsibility is not a crowded one and it is precisely where you can distinguish yourself.

What is one thing you could do to assume your proper responsibility for mistakes? Admit and apologize? Good, but if used too often, it becomes empty and meaningless. Make restitution? Even better. Review what went wrong and make adjustments so it doesn’t happen again? Now you’re talking.