Mistakes

5 posts



As a rookie manager, embarking on the journey to create your first budget can be a daunting and nerve-wracking experience. The key to success lies in knowing where to begin, understanding the starting point, and making breakthrough habits.

But fear not! In this article, we will guide you through budget creation with a focus on avoiding rookie mistakes, navigating the approval process, and effectively locking and monitoring your budget.

Rookie Mistakes: Setting The Right Foundation


Rookie mistakes in budgeting often stem from the absence of a clear vision. To avoid this trap, communicate openly with your superiors to understand the department's future directions. Sometimes, you might be directed to keep the new budget flat at last year's spending.

When starting your budget, referencing the previous year's budget is a safe and valuable starting point. It provides insights into past expenditures and helps lay a foundation for the new budget. Remember that a budget is a living and breathing document that requires periodic revisiting and adjustment.

Don't hesitate to seek input from colleagues; their insights can be invaluable. Communicating with stakeholders will lend a sense of ownership of the budgeting process.

One common oversight is the failure to include new initiatives in your budget plan. As your supervisors introduce new programs or investments, it's essential to incorporate these changes into your budget. Equally important is removing outdated or one-time initiatives from the previous budget.

Understanding salary and contractual changes is crucial. In certain industries, such as sports, specific costs are predetermined due to collective bargaining agreements, making up a significant portion of the budget. Recognizing these fixed costs helps you accurately plan the remaining flexible expenses.

To create an adequate budget, it's essential to understand your business thoroughly. Dive into past financial records, departmental spending, and the profit and loss statements from previous years. Understanding the spending patterns and where the money goes is vital for effective budgeting.

Interacting with various stakeholders within your department is crucial. Gather information about their plans, changes, and needs. Creating an inclusive budget process may not incorporate all suggestions, but it fosters valuable input and enhances the decision-making process.

The Approval Process: Navigating The Path To Success


Coworkers talk about the budget during a work meeting

Once you've crafted your budget, it's time to navigate the approval process. Before you head out to show your new budget to your boss, take a step back and ensure you don’t miss anything. Make sure that your formulas are cross-checking your numbers.

Proper coding of expenses is crucial for accurate financial tracking. Assign codes to invoices and categorize them within the budget to ensure the appropriate allocation of costs to specific departments or categories. Make it a habit to utilize the budget daily to determine expense placement and maintain financial clarity.

Lock And Monitor The Budget


Man works on his company's budget

After the finance team approves your budget, it becomes a finalized document, entering the 'lock and monitor' phase. In dynamic environments, such as the sports industry, urgent changes may arise; they might be a one-time expense or a large purchase requiring immediate budget adjustments. In such cases, you can change your financial position by updating the quarterly forecast. The budget cannot be adjusted because it is locked.

Calendarizing your budget assists in managing cash flow. Now that you have a final budget, you can distribute the expenditures when they occur during a 12-month period. This approach ensures better tracking and aligns costs with the correct quarters, providing a more transparent financial overview.

Contesting miscoded expenses to your budget line item is expected. Whenever this occurs, a simple phone call to the recording department typically settles the issue. This is why a budget to actual expense analysis is necessary periodically.

Categories like travel and entertainment expenses tend to fluctuate and be less controllable in budgeting due to unforeseen pricing and travel demands. These challenges can test the accuracy of budget projections, but adaptability and vigilance are your allies.

Building Trust, Credibility, And Accountability


Happy woman on laptop works on the budget

The critical lesson in creating a budget is establishing trust, credibility, and accountability. When stakeholders know and trust the validity of your numbers, they tend to relax and believe in your executive presence.

Creating your first budget is a transformative journey that empowers you to take control of your department's financial destiny. By avoiding rookie mistakes, mastering the approval process, and effectively locking and monitoring your budget, you pave the way for success.

Budgeting is not merely a financial task; it's a strategic tool that propels your organization to take hold of its current position and predict the future with confidence. Embrace the process, learn from your experiences, and let your budget become a beacon of financial prosperity and strategic mastering. Be that lighthouse on the hill that others look to as an example of excellence. You can do this!

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How To Create Your First Budget: Making …



Although we shoot for perfection and success at work, we all experience failure at some point in our careers. Failure can be difficult to handle in a professional setting. Executives and other leaders in the workplace—our mentors, the ones we look up to at work—have all failed. Not only that, but they've recovered from failure and found success in the process.

We recently asked our successful executives how they recover from a failure at work.

Here are their responses...

Lisa Perry, Global Marketing Executive


When I worked at The Disney Channel, one of my jobs was to proof ads. I was the last sign-off before the ad went to press. It was an exciting time as we launched a new campaign in support of a new series. It was quickly dampened when I learned that the ad, which had gone live that morning, had a glaring error I’d missed.

The most forward-thinking companies embrace risk-taking and the possibility of failure. What's wonderful about failure is the learning you receive from it. You learn substantially more from failures than successes. Failures should push you to bounce back and work harder to achieve your goals, making you stronger. Here are three things you should model as a leader within your organization:

1. Lead by Example: Management should share past examples of company failures, suggest new solutions that might work, and receive ideas from others without judgment.

2. Provide a Solution: While failing is okay, managers need to encourage employees to provide solutions to problems and propose an action plan for the next steps. Managers can then review and provide guidance on how best to proceed.

3. Don't Repeat Failures: The key here is to learn from your mistakes, document the learning, establish a process that ensures these failures won't happen again, and share these learnings throughout the organization.

The best advice I received is that failure is a success if we learn from it.

Lisa Perry helps companies build leadership brands, driving loyal customers & delivering profitability. She does this through a process that builds brands consumers love. Her goal is to help companies develop, monetize, and grow their brands.

Lynn Holland, VP Sales & Business Development


Woman stressed about a failure/mistake on the job

As a lover of the outdoors and living within driving distance of Oregon’s Mt. Hood, I was drawn to skiing. I volunteered as a cross-country instructor for an alpine club, then taught for a ski resort, secretly motivated by free lift tickets so I could get better at skiing downhill. Initially, I was afraid of failure and intimidated so when venturing onto harder runs it was natural to lean into the mountain. Yet I quickly learned that when I leaned out, though counterintuitive, I fell less, and I became a better skier.

As an executive, I see leaning out as risking to attempt something new and being aggressive to grow, learn, and accomplish greater things, knowing that along the way I will probably break some stuff. In my mind, as long as I learn from it and bring future success out of it, it has value.

After I launched my first company, leaning out manifested a failure as I negotiated a supply chain partnership to source products globally vs. just domestically. It represented a huge opportunity for my business, but in doing so, I failed to dig deeply into the relationship, the financial chain of custody, and the quality assurance process with each of the individual factories. As a result, my orders experienced missed lead times and material defects that were costly and embarrassing, and I later learned there was another party between my contractual partner and the factories who failed to perform.

This taught me to take full ownership of every aspect of my business and prompted me to implement a four-point policy that helped me select, negotiate, and manage all future partnerships successfully.

Here are some of my learnings about failing in business, recovering from it, and using it to propel our careers:

  • The most accomplished and celebrated leaders and entrepreneurs in history failed many times before they were a success.
  • Always fail while risking to accomplish something great.
  • Always take full ownership of failure to preserve credibility, integrity, and reputation.
  • Root out and take from a failure every available ounce of growth and wisdom into the next goal and keep striving.
  • Read the speech “Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt to remember to tune out the naysayers, haters, and critics who keep us from attaining greatness.
Lynn Holland is a business development executive with 18+ years of experience taking operational, IoT & retail technologies, products, & consumer engagement to market with a focus in petroleum & convenience retail.

Ana Smith, Talent Architect & Global Learning Strategist


Failure, success concept

When I think about recovering from a failure at work, I always have to ask/think about the context of the culture and psychological safety of the team, the business segment, and the organization where the failure happens.

As leaders or people managers, we play a critical role in how our team members perceive and react to failure when it happens; creating the necessary psychological safety and culture of learning is key to this.

Promoting a growth mindset for our people calibrates how they interpret failure in a completely different way than people with a fixed mindset. Folks with a growth mindset see failure as a signal that they need to put in more effort, try different strategies, or seek feedback and guidance. They use failure as a motivation to improve and grow, rather than as a reason to give up or feel ashamed.

Some examples of how people with a growth mindset view failure include:

  • Failure is only failure if we fail to learn from it
  • Failure is an opportunity to enhance our skills and knowledge
  • Failure is a challenge that pushes us out of our comfort zone

However, having/exercising a growth mindset is not always easy or simple. It requires practice, persistence, and support from your leader/manager.

Bouncing back from failure at work can be hard, but it’s not impossible. There are some steps we can all take to recover from a setback and move forward with confidence.

Some of the steps you/we can take are:

  • Being honest with your superiors and admitting your mistake
  • Don't make excuses or blame others for your failure
  • Find the silver lining (and there's always one!)
  • Learn from your failure

Using failure as an opportunity to improve your skill set and potentially become a better leader.

These steps can help you bounce back from failure at work and show that you are resilient, adaptable, and committed to your goals.

Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the "red thread."

Kathryn Marshburn, Music Program Manager


Businesspeople in a meeting upset about a failure at work

Successful executives get used to failure because it provides so much growth and opportunity to learn. Creating a culture of celebrating failure is important and that starts with humility in the workplace.

While I worked for Spotify, Dawn Ostroff, a C-suite executive at Spotify, would share failures, break them down, and celebrate in our town halls (in front of 3000 employees) where we could learn as a team from the mistakes. I remember seeing the title for her presentation and I was so intrigued and teams across the company were inspired. We took notes on how to not repeat those mistakes, lean into them, and forward progression for new strategies.

When a failure occurs:

  1. Accept it with humility
  2. Gather all the facts
  3. Review how we could improve moving forward
  4. Come to the table with a mindset of failures = possibilities

I believe developing your skills in the practice of losing and accepting is a huge educational opportunity, so your skill set includes being put in uncomfortable positions, so that you can get good at rejection. I believe that people are too addicted to positive reinforcement and we could all grow from learning how not to repeat the failure where the next project benefits from the previous failure.

Kathryn Marshburn has spent 12+ years in the music and gaming industries guiding teams on identifying targeted goals with an agile approach resulting in driving revenue and reducing risk.

Michael Willis, Sports Business Operations Executive


Man on laptop shocked, stressed about a failure at work

No one begins a journey with failure as part of their plan. Caution might lurk, but turning back is not an option.

As executives and leaders, we know that failure is part of success. The real work for leaders begins when you must figure out what works and what doesn’t.

The first step is to own the failure. Don’t blame anyone or anything else. Take full responsibility for the failure and the action needed to correct it.

Find the fix, and understand what went wrong.

Test the solution from beginning to end to ensure everything works as planned.

Meet with your team to outline what failed. Inform everyone what was done to solve the problem. And share with the team the new protocols going forward.

In summary, everyone on the team must communicate a breakdown or failed system. Leaders can’t effectively lead with missing information. Leaders need to lead teams that are invested in the end product.

Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M - $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.

John Schembari, Senior Education Executive


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​I like to conduct after-action reviews—or AARs—after failures on the job.

The AAR process is as follows:

  1. What was supposed to happen?
  2. What actually happened?
  3. Why did it happen?
  4. What are we going to do next time?

What I like about the AAR process is that it is not just about identifying a problem but highlighting solutions/next steps which hold me (and others) accountable for change. This works for project-based failures.

When it comes to leadership failures that are often surfaced in 360-degree/other performance reviews, I like to find mentors/resources in that area and discern what is and what is not in my power to address/change.

John Schembari is a current K-12 teacher/school leader academic improvement coach and former school building and district administrator. He loves to draw, travel, swing dance, and read nonfiction.

John Hoffman, Creative Producer


Video production/film team work through a failure

Being a creative producer in the film and live experiential event industry requires handling setbacks, challenges, and adverse conditions. Therefore, the skill of dealing with failure, or redefining it as setbacks on the job, is crucial for success.

To excel as a creative producer, it's essential to understand the primary responsibility of bringing a TV or live event concept to life:

  • Overseeing every aspect of the project
  • Generating ideas to collaborate with production partners and artists
  • Coordinating with all teams involved in all phases of the production process

Maintaining a positive attitude and staying focused on finding solutions is essential, and identifying pitfalls and solving problems is a superpower honed from years of experience. Setbacks can be turned into opportunities for growth and success, but this requires clear communication of expectations to stakeholders and realistic goals.

Instead, by approaching setbacks as opportunities for growth and focusing on finding solutions, creative producers can overcome challenges and succeed in bringing innovative and creative concepts to life.

With experience and agility, you learn to expect the unexpected because failure is not an option for a creative producer.

John Hoffman has 15+ years of leadership experience creating and producing video content, branded entertainment, PR stunts, and experiential and live events. At his core, he's a storyteller who has mastered the creative map and can scale logistical mountains.

How do you recover from a failure at work? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily's Executive Program.

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Taking A Breath: The Importance Of Being Mindful & Present



Yesterday, I had a “bad day.” Poor sleep, work was a challenge, family issues, and feeling worn down. I was not in a good mood by any stretch of the imagination.

I went home to my lovely wife who made a nice dinner. She asked if I was OK, and I said no. She left me alone for a while, and I opened up. We talked. Still, I was having a bad day.

This morning, I woke up and had my daily meditation. I listened to expert-led meditation on resetting my day. The teacher pointed out you cannot retake yesterday’s breaths; you can only breathe the breath of the current moment.

Think about this for a moment (while taking a breath). Can you retake your last breath? Can you retake the breath from two weeks ago, two years ago, or two decades ago? Can you take a breath two years from now? The answer is no—you can only breathe in the present moment.

Profound, thought-provoking, and so simple.

Letting Go Of The Past


"you are not your past" graphic

I am Jim, and I have a problem. I cannot let go of my past. I dwell on mistakes. I rethink and rethink my actions repeatedly. I go over in my mind what I did wrong and what I would do differently given the chance.

Those breaths are gone, and I cannot get them back. No matter what I do.

I have been doing a lot of reflection in the past several years. I have found a new philosophy for life that I am actively exploring. Mindfulness and being present are at the forefront of this study. Breathing my current breath.

Worry About The Future


Woman thinks about her future

​I am Jim, and I have a second problem. I overthink my future. Similar to my past, I replay what I want to do repeatedly in my mind. I work through scenarios (many worst cases) to plot how I want things to go. I even stress over those things I cannot control—like someone’s response.

These breaths have not even occurred, and I cannot predict when and where they will fall. No matter what I do.

Preparation and being mindful of the future are OK. Worry and obsessive planning can be stressful. Regardless of how hard we try, we cannot control every aspect of the future, nor can we predict those breaths.

Breathing Right Now… And Enjoying It.


Woman thinking as she looks out window

I am not an expert, and I am only several steps along my life path. I can tell you, I have struggled with being mindful and present. Whether I am replaying my day past or I am predicting my indeterminate future, I am adding undo stress to myself. I am creating chaos. Until this morning, I did not (and may still not) fully appreciate the words "you cannot breathe yesterday’s breath." Your breathing is the one thing you can follow to remain present and in the moment. It only occurs once, and it cannot be recreated. No two breaths will ever be alike. No breaths can ever be repeated.

The only breath that matters is the one you are taking right now. You can learn from the previous breaths, and you can prepare for the future takes. However, the only one truly in your control is the one taken right now. All the others are meaningless.

Take your breath, and know it is the best breath you can take in this very moment. Enjoy it.

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#1 Mistake People Make When Talking To Recruiters



This might be the most important lesson you ever learn about talking to recruiters.

I was in the recruiting industry before I flipped to the other side and became an advocate for you, the worker. So what I love to do is share the tips, tricks, secrets to working with a recruiter, and what it's like to be one, so that you can better communicate with them.

With that in mind, this is the biggest mistake I see job seekers make when trying to talk to recruiters...

Not Responding Quickly


@j.t.odonnell #1 Mistake People Make Talking With Recruiters #learnontiktok #interviewtips #recruiter #jobsearchtips #careertiktok #careermode #careeradvice #jobtok #jobsearch ♬ original sound - J.T. O'Donnell

You're probably checking your email every day for messages from recruiters, especially if you're in the middle of a proactive job search. But what you're not thinking about is that when that recruiter emails you and says, "Hey, do you have some slots available?" they messaged 20 to 30 other candidates as well, all with the same skill sets as you. So when you respond and they never message you back, it's easy to think that they ghosted you. But in reality, you just weren't one of the first people to get back to them.

The people who respond to recruiters that same day, usually that same hour, are the ones who get the phone screens. And as soon as recruiters have three to five viable candidates, they're done. So you need to check your email several times a day and you need to respond quickly if you want to get on that recruiter's list.

Remember this tip when trying to talk to recruiters in your job search. Because really, that's the biggest hurdle—starting a conversation with a recruiter. Once you start talking to the recruiter and they get you in front of the hiring manager, the rest is history and you can get a great new job.

But those recruiters are the gatekeepers. They're the people that screen you out before anyone can see you. So you have to learn how to get them to talk to you. And it starts with you responding quickly to their messages.

Need more help with your job search?

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#1 Mistake People Make When Talking To …

8 Mistakes Companies Make During Layoffs



I read this article by Forbes magazine on the subject of delivering bad news and realized just how many companies fail to follow the steps outlined when they lay people off. I honestly believe the majority of corporations and management teams don’t mean to do this incorrectly—they just haven’t been trained in what it takes to effectively communicate what’s happening. The result is an angry, vocal group of ex-staff members and a concerned set of clients who wonder if they should look for a new vendor.

Here are the most common mistakes companies make during layoffs:

1. Blindside Staff


I once worked at a start-up company that, unbeknown to the staff, was running out of funds. So, one day we walked in and saw at 10:00 a.m. a large group of people got up from their desks and went to the cafeteria for a meeting. The other large group got up and went to the conference room. Each had been sent an email on where to go. When they got to their respective meetings, the cafeteria group was told they were all being let go and to get their things, head home, and the company would be in touch with final pay. The other group was held hostage in the conference room and told they had to stay there until the layoff was complete. Needless to say, the fallout from that experience was significant.

2. Delaying The Inevitable


Woman looks at list of people she needs to lay off

I’m working with a woman right now whose company announced a layoff five months ago after they were bought out and merged with a larger firm. Absolutely nothing has happened since. She says the staff morale is at an all-time low. People feel paralyzed. They don’t want to look for a new job if they don’t have to, but they also don’t want to walk in one day and find out it’s over. Productivity is down and stress-related illness is up from the fear of the unknown.

3. Covering Up The Truth


Managers talk about layoffs in a work meeting

I have a friend who worked for a larger privately held company. One day he walked in and learned the company was “cutting expenses” and laid off 20% of the staff. At the time he thought he was lucky because he kept his job. A month later, news came out that the owner of the company was going through a messy divorce due to cheating on his wife and had been using company funds to support his mistress. The layoffs were a way to save money so he could pay himself more to cover the alimony payments while still maintaining his current lifestyle. My friend found a new job, along with several of his colleagues who couldn’t stomach working for the owner after that.

4. No Justifiable Explanation


Woman talks to her employees about layoffs in a team meeting

Some companies announce layoffs due to “a decline in sales” only to show an increase in earnings for shareholders in the same quarter. This sends a very confusing message to the world. You are making more money, so you are laying people off?

The best companies are clear as to why they are laying off—even if the reason is unpopular. If you feel appeasing shareholders is more important than keeping people employed, then say so. You might catch a lot of heat for your choice, but at least you won’t look like a liar.

5. No Support For Those Affected


Man upset after getting laid off

​Now that so many companies have conducted layoffs, it appears that HR departments and management teams have decided to scale back what they spend on outplacement programs (a.k.a. career coaching for those affected by the layoff). And, while their lack of effort to help those who have been working for them usually doesn’t make the national news, it does spread like wildfire through the social community.

Today, layoff victims have a large platform for tarnishing the reputation of a former employer who throws them out on the street without help: social media. Companies shouldn’t underestimate the negative impact failing to give proper resources to layoff victims will have on their reputation.

6. Not Addressing All Parties Involved


Employees talk about layoffs at work during a meeting

Some companies don’t feel they have to explain their reasons for laying off staff to anyone but those affected. What they forget is that anyone involved with their company is affected! For example, employees that don’t get let go have to deal with survivor’s guilt. It’s not as if they won’t ever see or hear from their former colleagues ever again. So, what should they do? And, no matter how hard you try to hide it, customers will hear about the layoffs. Would you rather they hear about it from a disgruntled ex-employee, or from you personally?

In a time when transparency in business is being demanded, companies cannot afford to ignore their communication responsibilities to all parties involved. Otherwise, you can expect to lose the trust of the very people you need on your side to see through these challenging times for your business.

7. Fail To Provide Progress Reports


Woman talks to employees about layoffs during a work meeting

After the deed is done and the employees are let go, many companies try to rush back to “business as usual.” Well, that doesn’t work. Why? Because the layoff fundamentally changed your business so there is no going back to the way it was.

Instead, companies should offer weekly progress reports to show those who are still with the company the ongoing efforts they are making to ensure the decision to lay off workers will in the long run be the right thing for both the business and them. You don’t stop the communications until you reach the point where you can show proof of success (i.e. stopped losing money, stabilized budget, etc.). At which point, you announce the new game plan to get the company back to its former glory.

8. Not Treating People With Respect After They Are Let Go


Coworker consoles woman who just got laid off

This is by far the most important. I’m amazed at how many companies let people go and then try their hardest to distance themselves from them. Example: A company I know laid off 2,000 people recently. Not only did they not give them any outplacement services, but they also decided they would not allow anyone at the company to be a reference for those who were let go. As a result, the 2,000 workers had no way to give potential employers a reference to prove they were part of an RIF (reduction in workforce).

The company stated that given the size of the layoff, employers would know about it and wouldn’t need references. Well, anyone in HR knows that these days references are very important. The company even went so far as to tell the employees who remained that if they got caught giving a reference, they would be fired. The 2,000 workers were forced to give an automated telephone line where it would verify pay and dates of employment as the reference instead. This created a lot of challenges for those workers who had been with the company for many years since they honestly had no live references they could provide during their job search.

Sharing This Article Will Help Future Layoff Victims!


I hope managers who are reading this article tuck it away so they can use it as a guide if the day comes when they need to conduct a layoff. I also hope anyone who has been affected by a layoff passes it along to their management team. Given how little training there is in conducting effective layoffs, we need to get corporate leadership up to speed on the right way to handle such a difficult situation. History shows that companies that manage the delivery of bad news and the need for change effectively are the ones that survive. So, the more senior management teams who read this and opt to follow the guidelines, the better, right? Do your part to educate your leadership team—send them a link to this article today!

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Check out Work It Daily's outplacement services today! My team and I are looking forward to working with you soon.


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8 Mistakes Companies Make During Layoffs