Leadership

3 tricks to winning back your manager's trust if you mess up at work

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Here's your 3-step emergency kit for a career disaster
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Here's your 3-step emergency kit for a career disaster

National Boss Day on October 16 has been an annual unofficial holiday since 1958, Hallmark says, as a way for employees to show some love to their managers.

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But not all of us may have a rosy relationship with our own bosses.

If you've failed on a project or made a mistake at work recently and you want to get back on your manager's good side, a simple greeting card or coffee might not do the trick.

Executive coach and career expert Jeff Black tells CNBC Make It that there are ways for you to restore your image and credibility.

Here are three strategies Black says you can follow to restore trust between you and your boss.

Enter a quiet period

First you need to acknowledge your mistake and, of course, apologize for it, Black says. You should follow this with two to three weeks of being quiet. Now, this doesn't mean ignoring when your manager speaks to you.

"You can't look like everything's okay a week later after there's been a failure on your part," Black says.

Instead of acting like everything is great and normal, your boss needs to see that you are humbled by your error, Black says. This shows that instead of dismissing your mistake, you are in fact "very thoughtful about what has happened."

You also decrease the likelihood of reminding your manager and coworkers about your error.

"We move onto the next crisis when that is out of our mind for a while," Black says. So you should move on, too.

Get support from your mentors

Following your work blunder, Black encourages you to reach out to people you are close to at work as fast as possible.

"Get to your champions, your supporters, your mentors, you don't want them hearing about it in the hallway from somebody else a week later," Black says.

The point is to make sure they hear the correct information directly from you and not a rumor that has spun out of control.

Those champions and supporters can help you restore your personal image, Black adds.

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Work on scoring small victories

Black says you should take on a series of projects as a way to score small wins with your boss.

"After having a project that failed, there's a great risk taking on another huge project," Black says. But it may help, if you take extra care to perform them properly.

By having small successes over time, you increase your ability to reestablish your credibility with your manager and peers, Black says.

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This is an updated version of a story that appeared previously.