Things don’t always go our way at work. Sometimes it’s because we haven’t:

- Mastered all the skills we need
- Performed well at the right time
- Solidified our support system
- Been realistic about our readiness

That leaves us open to disappointment when we don’t:

- Get hired for a job we really want
- Promoted to a position when we believe we’re the best candidate
- Hear our name mentioned as a key project contributor
- Get included in issues discussions around our areas of expertise

These letdowns make us feel like we’ve fallen short. So we:

- Berate ourselves with a pile of negatives that make us feel worse
- Let our performance decline by slowing our pace, losing our creative energy, and allowing our drive to wane
- Give up putting ourselves “out there” for future opportunities
- Ignore the lessons about what we can do better and how we can bounce back

Everyone gets discouraged.

We often forget that everyone gets smacked with disappointment. Some hide it well and others make a drama out of it.

The big lesson is that disappointment is the cause of performance decline. Successful people don’t let that decline hang around very long.

Professional sports let you see, literally, how disappointment hurts performance:

I’ve heard Patrick McEnroe, ESPN commentator and former U.S. Davis Cup Team captain, report that losing the first set in tennis often causes a temporary lowering of player performance.

Some professional golfers who have blown leads in major championships fail to make the cut at their next tournament.

Basketball players who miss key shots at the end of tight games will often pass the ball rather than shoot in subsequent games.

It’s about attitude and confidence.

Winners know how to manage disappointment and preserve their confidence. They quickly come to terms with disappointing situations by putting them in perspective. They:

- Analyze the contributing factors—their knowledge, skill, experience, the environment, situational politics, and/or relationships
- Examine their choices—what they did and said, their timing, strategy, and plan
- Consider their expectations—how realistic were they, how appropriate, how egoistic, and how balanced
- Weigh the results—how important are they in the short and long-term, what are the implications on their careers, what will it take to get another opportunity

We tend to give our disappointments bigger significance than they deserve. We feed ourselves negative lines like:

- I’ll never get another shot at that job.
- I blew that promotion interview, so that hiring manager will never consider me again.
- I must not have what it takes to succeed in this company.

For some reason, we think we have the inside track on why things aren’t going our way. If that’s you, then here’s your next step:

Ask your boss or HR or your mentor or a trusted coworker what the real issue is.

Believe it or not, sometimes our expectations aren’t met because of business situations that we simply don’t know about. Things don’t always have to do with us.

In our careers, we can only control what we can control, and that’s our performance.

You can’t allow your disappointment to cause your productivity to decline, your creativity to slump, or your attitude to darken.

The people in your organization who disappoint you know it. They don’t like it any better than you do. That’s just how things happen in business and in life.

But they do watch how you bounce back from it. Showcasing your can-do, will-do, want-to-do attitude in the face of disappointment is a sign of what you’re made of.

Athletes complete the game no matter how far behind they are. That’s what the crowd pays to see—not quitters who walk off the field of play.

Our employers hire us to work in good times and bad. They expect us to stay in the game with them.

There’s no pride in giving up or beating yourself up when things aren’t working out your way. Instead, show your bounce.