Dear Jobs Guru: ‘How do I tell my colleague they keep making serious mistakes?'

One of my senior level colleagues consistently makes mistakes in their work. They produce reports for clients and they always contain errors.

Nobody has direct line oversight of this person, but I really think someone needs to point out their slip-ups because I don't think it reflects well on the company.

But this person is my peer, not my subordinate, so I don't know how to raise it with them without causing conflict.

This is clearly a rather delicate situation and needs to be handled accordingly – i.e. delicately!

It’s definitely going to be one of those ‘quiet word’ situations. You need to time it well so that your colleague is in a reasonably good mood and not swamped with work and then attempt to take them to one side, just saying you’d like a moment of their time for a private chat.

As you rightly surmise, the key here is to avoid conflict. I’d therefore recommend you approach the matter from the point of view of wanting to help them. That should help to defuse the possibility of a negative reaction.

State in a matter-of-fact manner that you can’t help but notice that in, for example, the reports they produce for clients, there are often some mistakes. Explain that you’d be more than happy to work with them to help them to address this little issue – and consequently to ensure that their reports are perfect.

It may be that they just don’t have your eagle eyes for such details, are completely oblivious to these mistakes and will be pleased to accept your assistance.

If an error-prone colleague doesn’t take well to – and accept – an offer of help, sometimes you might just have to go over their head…

How you handle difficult interpersonal situations will demonstrate pretty much everything anyone needs to know about your interpersonal skills.

Do you clash head-on with people? Do you run away and hide? Or do you find ways to deal with them? You want to demonstrate that you are someone who, when faced with a difficult situation with a colleague, will find ways to deal with it – and to put your relationship on a more positive footing.

Nobody wants a hothead who is just going to clash with their colleagues, nor do they want someone who is just going to stick their head in the sand, because that will inevitably be counter-productive in the long-term.