One of the worst feelings at work is when you realize you totally messed up. You stare in disbelief at first hoping that you didn’t really make as big of a mistake as you think you did. Then, with a pit in your stomach, you calculate all the ways you can hide and hope that nobody notices what happened.

In fact, you can overcome a lot of mistakes at work, but you have to deal with them in the right way. And that will start with a difficult conversation.

Though it may not seem like it, your aim is actually to increase the amount of trust you get from your boss. You might assume that a mistake is the surest way to lose your boss’s trust. But what your supervisors want more than anything is to know that nothing will go too seriously wrong. If they know you will come to them to alert them of problems you have caused, then they don’t necessarily need to look over your shoulder all the time.