How to end excuses and blame on your team

Posted: September 8, 2015 | Categories: Leadership, Team Building

I want to share with you one of my favorite examples from all my years of facilitating leadership and management classes:  Several years ago, one of my class members was relating a childhood incident that they believed to be a defining moment in their lives.  It was when they were a toddler, and they accidentally knocked over a glass of milk.  It spilled all over the floor, and was quite a mess.  Mom was nearby, of course.  You might think that she reacted harshly saying something like, “Johnny, now look what you have done.  You’ve got to be more careful!”  No, it wasn’t anything like that.  Instead, she spoke softly, and with loving kindness said, “Well, it looks like we have a little mess to clean up.  Here is your sponge.  I’ll grab mine, and together we will have this cleaned up in no time”.

The person sharing this above story saw this as pivotal in his life.  From that point on, he was never afraid to make a mistake.  Even though he was a person of excellent standards and did everything he could to do things right, his Mom taught that we do make mistakes, and the best thing is to own up to them and learn from them.

The best teams take ownership, and admit their mistakes quickly without qualification.  They build a culture where everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing.  They know the level of expectations that are expected, and they do their best.  Mistakes are inevitable, and when they are made, there is no blame or excuses.  The team works together to fix the problem and profit from their losses.

But aren’t we allowed to be upset when someone really screws up?  Yes, of course.  And based on the nature of our temperament, some of us are more volatile than others.  As one of my entrepreneurial clients puts it, “My team is great.  They let me have my tantrum.  After I am through, we usually have a few self-effacing laughs, and dig in to solve the problem.

We need to create a culture where people are challenged to do their best while always knowing that they will make mistakes…and own them.