Striving Towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

We’ve all heard those painful words: “I’m disappointed in you.” Whether from a boss, colleague, or client, disappointment at work can shake our confidence and make us question our abilities. The key is responding constructively rather than letting it spiral into self-doubt.

Four Steps to Recovery:

1. Apologize Genuinely If you made a mistake, own it without getting defensive. Avoid overthinking—just acknowledge your role in the shortfall and focus on moving forward. Defensiveness only makes things worse.

2. Understand the Root Cause Ask yourself: What exactly caused the disappointment? Was it rushing through a project, missing a crucial detail, or taking on more than you could handle? Understanding the “why” helps you identify areas for improvement and prevents future issues.

3. Propose Solutions Come to the table with concrete ways to prevent similar disappointments. This shows you’re proactive and serious about improvement. Offering solutions immediately reduces negative emotions and demonstrates your commitment to doing better.

4. Accept Your Humanity Remember: nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. The fact that you feel bad about disappointing someone actually shows maturity—you care about keeping commitments and doing good work.

Moving Forward Disappointment is inevitable, but how you handle it defines your professionalism. Use these moments as opportunities to grow, improve, and strengthen relationships. The same approach works in personal relationships too—apologize, understand, fix, and accept.

Your response to disappointment can actually build more trust than never disappointing at all.