- The dustup over US officials' use of Signal to discuss military plans offers a workplace lesson.
- If you screw up on the job, it's best to own it — even when it's embarrassing.
- One CEO told BI he's never fired anyone over a mistake but he has for malfeasance.
The first thing to do when you screw up big time at work: stop digging.
In fact, owning up is a way for leaders, in particular, to pass along good lessons to an entire organization, executives told Business Insider.
"It's a lot easier to correct mistakes than double down on them," Sam Naficy, the CEO of the software maker Prodoscore, said. "I tell my teenage kids this."
As easy as it is to understand, it can still be difficult for workers and leaders alike to acknowledge their screwups, especially when they seem like doozies to critics.
It's a real-time lesson playing out at the highest levels of the US government after revelations on Monday that President Donald Trump's national security advisor, Mike Waltz, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, among others, discussed military plans on Signal in a group chat that mistakenly included the editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine.
'I don't want secrets'
Often, the fallout from a mistake is worse when we try to outrun it. It's echoed in the Nixon-era precept that in government and beyond, the coverup is often worse than the crime.
Naficy said that in nearly 29 years running companies, he's never fired anyone over a mistake — though has dismissed a handful of people for what he saw as malfeasance, which he said is distinct.
"I don't want secrets. If there's an issue — if there is a mistake that has been made — let's surface it right away," Naficy said.
The pressure can be especially intense for leaders who are, rather unrealistically, supposed to have all the answers.
Ayanna Jackson, who founded and runs AEJ Consulting, an executive coaching and career-development firm in metro Washington, DC, told BI that bosses who are dominant or conscientious in their leadership styles might have a particularly hard time facing their blunders.
"Both of those styles hate to be wrong," she said.
Jackson said that if leaders don't cop to their mistakes, it can put pressure on those below them to make excuses on their behalf. That only makes things worse, she said.
"The tone at the top matters," Jackson said. "Things trickle down."
Not owning your mistakes can backfire
Jackson said that rather than standing on a tarmac before reporters to downplay the security breach as Hegseth did, he could have said using Signal for a back-and-forth with other senior government officials was a mistake. Then, the focus might have turned to security protocols and considerations over commercial messaging apps.
Instead, she said, statements by Hegseth and others in the group minimizing the sensitive nature of the texts — essentially saying there's nothing much to see here — made the public more focused on what was said in the chat.
As officials attempted to underplay the issue, The Atlantic on Wednesday published messages from the Signal chat — two days after the initial revelations came out.
"He would have done so much better coming out and taking ownership of it and simply saying, 'You know what? We recognize the error that was made,'" Jackson said, referring to Hegseth.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement to BI that the messages make clear that classified materials and war plans weren't shared and that Hegseth "was merely updating the group on a plan that was underway and had already been briefed through official channels."
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment from BI on the actions of Waltz and Vice President JD Vance, among others, in using Signal to discuss military plans.
Laying it all on the table
Other leaders see room for improvement in how top government officials have handled the Signal story. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN that those involved know they made a mistake and should act accordingly.
"They should own it and fix it so that never happens again," he said.
Kyle Hanslovan knows all too well about owning up to mistakes. He served in the US Air Force and spent more than a decade working on security issues involving the National Security Agency. He later cofounded Huntress, a cybersecurity firm, where he serves as CEO.
Hanslovan said that in 2021, an outsider gained access to Huntress' testing servers after the company left them vulnerable to intrusion. The weak spot: the password "abc123!!!"
He said Huntress took steps to address the hack and went public with the issue even though customer data wasn't breached.
Hanslovan, who wrote about the incident in a blog post, said the transparency helped the company learn while also earning respect from clients for its candor.
"Coming forward, as a security company, built more credibility," he said, adding that trust in Huntress — along with the startup's revenue — rose after the company disclosed the incident.
Hanslovan said the company didn't fire the engineer responsible but instead used the situation to help the organization improve.
"That engineer has actually been a really big part of making sure that we don't make those mistakes again," Hanslovan said.
Still, when you screw up, you might want to pause — if you can. Jackson, the executive coach, said she often encourages leaders to take a beat before rushing to social or in front of a microphone.
"Make sure your response is measured, appropriate, professional, and addresses the needs of the audience that you're talking to," Jackson said.
