(Disclaimer: Epic Fail is the name of the series, I by no means consider the 30 second MBA a failure.)

How do you earn a MBA in thirty seconds? Is it by watching FastCompany‘s Thrity Second MBAs? I’m going to be honest with you: no. We are all friends here, right? This is not how you earn a MBA in thirty seconds. Actually, if we’re going to be completely frank, it isn’t even possible to earn a MBA in under a minute. But you didn’t hear that from me.

Nevertheless, these guys do have a pretty cool idea going on. They have a collection of “professors”, AKA various founders, supervisors, and CEOs of well-to-do businesses. The professors are posed a handful of questions that range from “How do you resolve conflicts” to “How do you give negative feedback to a colleague?” and answer these questions in easy to watch, 30 second videos.

There are dozens upon dozens of these little video blurbs, but one of my personal favorites is the “How do you handle mistakes?” series. Christopher Lukezic, Director Of International Communications of Airbnb (a company that provides an alternative to hotels for frugal travelers) gives some profound advice:

“You are never freed from making mistakes, but you are held accountable for how you respond to them.”

The advice of Ryan Boyles, Worldwide Social Media Strategist of IBM Software is exceptionally practical. He, predictably, focuses on social media, but I feel like this idea is pertinent in every realm:

“I believe the best way to address making mistakes [...] is really no different than in real life: you need to own that mistake [...] So the speed in which you respond, even if it’s just admitting the mistake, is key.”

Finally, I leave you with the motherly advice of Dr. Elizabeth  Mellon, Executive Director of Duke Corporate Education. Failure is just an opportunity to learn, in her opinion, and she underscores everyone’s ability to bounce back. Her advice, in the face of failure is to:

“sit down with some colleagues, dissect what happened, [and] help them and you avoid making the mistake again. The bottom line is, if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not trying hard enough.”

Thanks to Flickr user Viajar24h.com for this picture.

Today, while chilling out in the room of an urgent care center, I was able to witness the importance of customer updates first hand. After getting my blood drawn, I waited on that crinkly, white bed for a good 10-15 minutes, before the nurse came in to tell me that the testing would take about 45 more minutes and that I could either wait for the results, or go home. He says that he’s going to ask the doctor what he wants me to do and will be back with the answer in a minute or two. 45 minutes later he walks in, apologizes for not telling me sooner and tells me the doctor wanted me to wait.

It’s all fine and dandy that he wanted me to wait, but it would have been nice to know that 45 minutes ago, when he said he was going to tell me. My trust in him took a nose-dive after that.

Whether the time it takes to provide your product of service takes only seconds or takes months, become mindful of it. Having an accurate perception of your timeline allows you to provide true to life promises to your clients.  The nurse had this down pat, but it was the next part that he failed at: updating.

Unexpected setbacks can occasionally pop up and wreak havoc on deadlines. The best thing you can do in these situations, in addition to working your butt off to keep things on schedule, is to communicate with your customer. It is better to inform them as soon as possible, to adjust their expectations, than to let them find out later. when you don’t deliver on time, and completely shatter their expectations. Even if the nurse had come in to tell me that he had forgotten, half way through the waiting period, I would have been happy to know he didn’t completely blow me off. But instead, he made no attempt to right his wrong, and waited until the last minute to let me know.

It’s also good to remember that updates aren’t reserved just for bad news; it is completely okay, and desirable, to let a customer know that things are on track to happen when expected. A simple, “I’m still on schedule to finish by the end of the month,” will suffice. Doing this maintains the customer-provider relationship and can even create a dialogue. Perhaps the client has something they want to discuss and they didn’t know when to bring it up. Maybe they just want to mention something they really like about your business. Any chance for conversation should be welcomed with open arms, especially if it helps to keep expectations on track.

And, Mr. Nurse, if you’re reading this, you were fabulously friendly and I completely appreciated that, but you really must work on your notification skills.

Source: Want to be successful? Learn to manage expectations.

This picture sure is /promising/. Thank you, Flickr user kennysarmy.

It may sound great in the moment, and you may really believe you can do it then, but making big promises under pressure can result in breaking them when under more pressure.

Promising less often sounds like you must necessarily deliver less, like it will hold back growth, improvement and possibly a business deal. But in reality it is always possible, and even desirable, to bring more positive to the table than originally agreed upon.

It’s the bringing less that you really have to worry about.

The key to this is to truly think BEFORE you speak. And AFTER you’ve thought, have the courage to to speak up. Easier said than done. But anytime you are about to make some sort of agreement with the client, take a moment to think it over. Is this something I’ve been able to do effectively and completely in the past? What happens if I can’t deliver on this? Then be brave enough to say no, ask for more (time, money, resources) or to modify requests (as professionally and gracefully as possible).

The pressure, excitement and anxiety of business decisions can make it hard to say “No, two weeks will be needed to complete that, not just one.” But isn’t that better than saying, “No, it isn’t ready yet. Can you wait one more week?”

Inspiration: “Want to be Successful? Learn to Manage Expectations”