How Can You Smile That Way?

Pierre Dolet writes . . .

Wipe the smile off your face when confessing failure.

There's a wry smile that permeates the "team," a sense of "Who cares" and "That's the way it is" that apparently allows one to mitigate the sense of responsibility with a shoulder shrug and a "knowing" grin.

Oh, they know all right: the Powers That Be never defined what they wanted adequately, didn't give enough resources, set an unrealistic deadline - and probably won't sell any of the stuff we make to justify having done it all anyway. So our failure was a set-up. Someone will pay. They'll probably lay off another 5 or 10 line workers to justify the shortfall. We failed.

So don't smile, wryly knowing or not, when confessing failure.