FAST COMPANY: How do you handle mistakes?
JEFF DIANA: The best way to handle mistakes is with humor. You gotta have some self-deprecation in there. I think you want to own them very quickly and visibly, something I learned early in my career. If you made a mistake, own it. Don't dwell on it, don't give people an opportunity to dwell on it as well. Simply own it, and take it off the table. That's the first thing you do. I think you then have to try and learn from it. What's the one or two things that you can take away from that mistake so you don't fall in that trap again. And then I think you want to focus on the fix--what are you going to do better next time, and have some fun with it. You're going to make mistakes, get comfortable making mistakes, and keep moving.
How do you handle mistakes?
Born in Okinawa, Japan, Jeff Diana joined SuccessFactors, an SAP company, in 2010 as chief people officer. In his role, he focuses on the business impact potential of SuccessFactors’ products and serves as a leader for the company’s employees across the world. An accomplished business leader with a deep functional and strategic expertise in human resources (HR), Diana has helped organizations to achieve strong performance through the creation of innovative people agendas focused on delivering superior value to the customer. His experience includes senior HR leadership roles at Expedia, General Electric, Microsoft and Safeco with a sharp focus on talent management and designing global customer centric organizations to deliver strong growth.
