Here’s another interesting topic from Robert Sutton’s book, Good Boss, Bad Boss…
Robert talks about the importance of taking blame when things go badly. Even if something is not totally your fault, it’s best to accept the blame, learn from it, and do your best to improve the situation.
There aren’t many high profile examples of managers following this advice. Just take a look at the recent headlines. For instance, we don’t see company executives lined up to accept blame for the offshore oil drilling disaster. The blame game has been well under way for months now.
Lots of managers instead favor the fake apology. Sutton references the popularity of the “mistakes were made” phrase. Translation – “A bunch of other people screwed up, but I certainly didn’t. It’s unfortunate that bad things happened. We’ll try to prevent them from happening again in the future.”
He does give a few examples in the book of leaders that have stepped up and taken full responsibility for problems, and they have been rewarded for doing so. Sutton also references a study which indicates that companies with senior executives who accept full responsibility for problems outperform those with executives that blame their misfortunes on forces outside their control.
This doesn’t just apply to senior executives, though. It applies to all levels of managers and employees. Accepting blame conveys that you have some level of control. Sutton offers up a quote that I really enjoy, “If you didn’t have the power to break it, how can we expect you to have the power to fix it?”
So, don’t waste time quibbling over who is to blame or who is right or wrong. Take the heat and then focus your energy on improvement.
Flickr photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/36498826@N02/4586821590/
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