Making Wrong Decisions

Moving from individual contributor (IC) to taking on management responsibility I have observed two important (and probably obvious) facts. First, a manager ends up making a lot more incorrect decisions then a IC; Second, (and perhaps most obviously) those decisions effect more people. So how do you cope when you make a wrong decision?

I've found the hardest part for me is dealing with different reactions when things go wrong. My first reaction is to start fixing right away. My idea of taking responsibility is to try to resolve the issue if possible and start damage control if it isn't. The error here is that I didn't stop long enough to think about how the team will react.

Here is an example: working on a (hypothetical) project with delivery date for a software module. Discussing it with the team, one member is concerned about the risk of meeting the delivery date and proposes an alternate date. After some back and forth I make a judgement call and decide that it is worth taking the risk since getting the module out early will lower cost. Half way in, it is clear that my judgement was wrong. Now the team member is very upset. Not only was he proven right about the risk, now he is going to be asked (by his jerk manager me!) to work harder / stay extra to try to finish the module within the required deadline.

Putting the poor guy (or gal) at ease has to start with eating crow. I think the idea here is to communicate that the mistake was mine and that I'm going to try to fix it. I think it is important to say it (provided I think it was my mistake). I have to admit though I don't know exactly the best way to do this.

Let's reverse the situation and say that it was the team member that made the case for the risky decision that turned out to be wrong. In that case, I think it is important to take responsibility for decisions you approved. Identify if the team member made an error of knowledge or a breach of judgement. Sometimes information was wrong or not clearly understood.

I know I have more questions than answers at this point so I'll turn to you. What are your strategies for dealing with wrong decisions?