Very occasionally I come out with a phrase that on later reflection is a "banger"

The most recent example was a junior engineer upset at making a mistake (understandable) and my reply was "I promise you that I have made way more, and bigger, mistakes than you have" said in an open office within earshot of the rest of the team. And in doing that trying to normalise that occasional mistakes are okay and even expected.

While is true that I likely wouldn't have made the same mistake another phrase, that I didn't invent, comes to mind: "experience is something you get after you need it". I've had 25 years worth of mistakes, my junior only has a handful.

Hopefully my junior felt a little better about not being 100% perfect (i.e. Human)

#mentoring #MentoringThoughts