Greeshma Thampi and Sushma IR

>>The repercussions: If, however, you choose to remain silent about a mistake that no one else has spotted, it will remain a burden you are carrying. “Someone might find out six months later, and the guilt will then consume you and you will feel ashamed of yourself,” Thampi explains, with Sushma pointing out how your productivity might get affected while you hide the mistake because you will spend too much energy on covering it up. “Your stress levels will be high, and that will affect your mental health,” she explains. 

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>>How it reflects: But, on the other hand, if you do own up to your mistake, it shows that you feel as if you are accountable for your work. Sushma tells us, “It shows that you are not looking at it as merely a job, but as value you add to the company,” while Thampi adds that owning up to a mistake also offers a person a chance to find a solution for it, even as the whole process acts as a case study for others in the team, who will know what the error entails and how not to repeat it. “You are creating a safe space for others to also come clean, because you are comfortable displaying your vulnerability and human side,” she says.

>>Building respect: All this, ultimately, will lead to people respecting you more, even though it’s you who made the mistake. Thampi highlights how not just the Indian team, but even the Australian women cricketers and the international media lauded Raut for her act. Similarly, people at the workplace will also trust and respect someone who has the gumption to own up to a mistake instead of covering it up with lies. That’s the sort of person we tend to look up to, instead of someone who shoots from over another person’s shoulder to hide their own faults, because there are few things that are worse than that. 

Coming clean

Thampi tells us about the case of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who, in 2012, had misled investors about losses amounting to $6.2 billion. Dimon had dismissed press accounts when he was already in the know about the losses. But he came clean a month later, before the true nature of the losses was revealed in the public domain. And consequently, he rose in stature in the eyes of his subordinates, one of whom described him as having moral courage, “the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.” Dimon remains CEO of the firm.