Business English Vocabulary · Lesson 10

Sound Professional When Admitting Mistakes and Giving Feedback

From taking ownership of a mistake to giving feedback that people can accept: the phrases senior professionals use when things go wrong – clear, precise and easy for everyone to understand.

ARead: what went wrong?

Read the meeting. The phrases in bold are for exercise B. The underlined phrases are useful meeting phrases for exercise C.

Reviewing the new pricing model

Six months ago, a software company raised its prices. It went badly. The leadership team is reviewing what went wrong.

KarinCEOLet’s be honest about what happened. Our forecasts said we would keep 95% of our customers after the price change. We kept 70%. Our forecasts were wide of the mark – nowhere near the real result.

LeoProduct DirectorThat’s on me. I approved those forecasts. It was a misjudgement on my part: I misjudged how sensitive our smaller customers were to price, and I overlooked the fact that two competitors had just cut their prices.

AmiraMarketing DirectorWe all made mistakes. We’d been the market leader for five years, and I think we’d become complacent. We thought customers would never leave, so we stopped working as hard to keep them.

KarinAgreed. We took our eye off the ball. While we were focused on the new pricing, a competitor launched a cheaper product, and we didn’t notice until it was too late.

FelixSales DirectorAnd when we did notice, we were completely caught off guard. Nobody in sales was prepared for it.

KarinThe price increase was supposed to raise our revenue, but it backfired: we actually earned less than before.

FelixMy bad, too – I told the board the sales team could handle the change, and they couldn’t.

LeoA few years ago, we might have got away with a price rise like that. Customers had nowhere else to go. Not any more.

KarinNo. And we’ve paid the price: two hundred lost clients and a very difficult quarter.

LeoI want to take accountability for the pricing decision. I’ll take the fall for that with the board.

KarinI appreciate that, Leo, but this was a team decision, and we all need to take ownership of it. What matters now is how we make up for it – how we win those customers back.

AmiraIf we could just flag up one thing: our messages to customers were poor. Maybe we could rethink how we communicate price changes in future.

KarinGood point. And Felix, your forecast for the third quarter was a little wide of the mark too, so let’s review it together tomorrow.

Bold = key words (exercise B)Underlined = meeting phrases (exercise C)

BKey words from the meeting

Based on the meeting, choose the phrase that matches each definition. Then complete the example sentence. You may need to change the form of the phrase.

To have the opposite effect to the one you intended

“The discount campaign : customers started to think the product was cheap.”
Not accurate; far from the correct answer or result

“Our sales estimate was way .”
To accept that you are responsible for something, especially a mistake

“A good leader the team’s mistakes.”
To do something wrong without being punished, or without suffering any bad consequences

“You can’t missing deadlines forever.”
To stop paying attention to something important

“While the CEO was focused on the merger, we .”
Too satisfied with your success, so that you stop trying hard enough

“After ten years at the top, the company became .”
To do something good in order to correct a mistake or to compensate for a problem

“We offered them a 20% discount to the delay.”
Surprised by something you were not prepared for

“The journalist’s question about the layoffs .”
To form a wrong opinion or a wrong estimate about something

“We completely how long the project would take.”
To suffer the bad consequences of a mistake or a decision

“They ignored all the warnings, and now they’re .”
To fail to notice or consider something

“When you’re under pressure, it’s easy to small details.”

CWhat would you say?

Read each situation from a meeting. Which phrase would you use?

DSay it better

Each sentence below is correct, but it sounds simple. Rewrite it using a phrase from this lesson, then compare your version with the model answer.

“Our numbers were completely wrong.”

Use: wide of the mark

Show model answer
“Our figures were way wide of the mark.”
“We were too confident, so we stopped trying.”

Use: complacent

Show model answer
“I think we became complacent.”
“We stopped paying attention to our competitors.”

Use: ball

Show model answer
“We took our eye off the ball, and our competitors caught up.”
“The plan had the opposite result to what we wanted.”

Use: backfire

Show model answer
“Unfortunately, the plan backfired.”
“It was my mistake.”

Use: on me or ownership

Show model answer
“That’s on me.” or, more formally, “I take full ownership of the mistake.”
“We’ll give them a free month to say sorry for the problem.”

Use: make up for

Show model answer
“We’ll offer them a free month to make up for the problem.”

EKey words in a new context

A CEO is writing to all staff after a serious system failure. Complete the email with the phrases from the box. You may need to change the form of some of the words.

Word box

misjudge
complacent
take your eye off the ball
caught off guard
wide of the mark
backfire
get away with
pay the price
take ownership of
that’s on me
make up for

From: Sophie Grant, CEOTo: All staffSubject: Last week’s system outage

Dear all,

As you know, our booking system was down for almost two days last week. I want to explain what happened and what we are doing about it.

Put simply, we the risk. Our system had worked perfectly for six years, and I think we became : we stopped testing it as carefully as we used to. While we were busy with the office move, we .

When the server failed on Monday morning, we were . Our backup plan had never been properly tested, and our estimate that we could recover in two hours was – it took forty-one.

We also tried to save time by restarting everything at once. Unfortunately, that decision and caused even more damage.

For years, we using old hardware. Last week, we .

As CEO, I what happened. The decision to delay the system upgrade was mine, so, to put it simply: .

Now we need to it. Every affected customer will receive a full refund and a free month of service, and we will invest €2 million in new systems this year.

Thank you for all your hard work during a very difficult week.
Sophie

Use it well

Three things professionals often get wrong when they talk about mistakes.

How formal is your apology?

It was a misjudgement on my part – formal; good for clients and senior people.

That’s on me – neutral and direct.

My bad – very informal; only with colleagues you know well.

I’ll take the fall – you accept the blame, even if others were involved.

Get away with or pay the price?

They are opposites:

We got away with it for years – no consequences. This year we paid the price – serious consequences.

You can also pay a high price or pay a heavy price for something.

Softening negative feedback

Small words make criticism easier to hear:

Your estimate was a little wide of the mark. If we could just flag up one thing… Maybe we could rethink…

Without them, the same feedback can sound like an attack.

Glossary

All the phrases from this lesson.

When things go wrong

wide of the marknot accurate; far from the correct result
to misjudgeto form a wrong opinion or estimate about something
to overlookto fail to notice or consider something
complacenttoo satisfied with your success to keep trying hard
to take your eye off the ballto stop paying attention to something important
caught off guardsurprised by something you were not prepared for
to backfireto have the opposite effect to the one you intended
to get away withto do something wrong without suffering bad consequences
to pay the priceto suffer the bad consequences of a mistake
to take accountability for / to take ownership ofto accept responsibility, especially for a mistake
to make up forto do something good to correct a mistake

Admitting mistakes

That’s on me.saying simply that a problem was your responsibility
My bad.admitting a small mistake, very informally
I’ll take the fall for that.accepting the blame for the whole team
It was a misjudgement on my part.admitting a wrong judgement, formally

Giving negative feedback

Your … was a little wide of the mark.saying gently that something wasn’t accurate
If we could just flag up one thing…mentioning a problem politely
Maybe we could rethink…suggesting a change of approach