"The Slack facepalm that built more trust"

Bit of a foggy moment recently.

I dropped a message in Slack asking a few contractors to let me know when they’re off, making it easier to approve their timesheets.

Turns out I wasn’t even approving two of the timesheets. Never had.
And the third was already logging time off in the team calendar.

Classic facepalm. 🤦‍♂️

But I owned it. Dropped the emoji, admitted the mix-up, had a laugh.

No harm done. But also, no hiding.

Because here’s the thing:

As leaders, we’re not expected to be perfect. But we are expected to be real.

When we try to bluff through mistakes, people notice. And they learn:
maybe it’s not okay to be wrong around here.

But when we handle it with good grace, they learn something else:

That’s how trust builds. That’s how safety spreads.

What’s a small mistake you turned into a trust-building moment? I’d love to hear it.

Until next time,
Dermot
​The Messy Middle

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