One of the most significant impediments to individual and organizational learning and improvement is the “blame game.” Most people in leadership positions can recall a recent incident when a problem was discovered. The people involved quickly began distancing themselves from the debacle or pointing fingers at others. As maddening as this behavior is, most leaders are oblivious to how they may be perpetuating the blame game within their organization—and the power they have to stop it.
When leaders resist the urge to blame employees for mistakes, employees will be less likely to point the finger elsewhere and more likely to acknowledge their part in the problem.
Here are three things leaders can do to end the blame game and promote a culture of accountability.
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Adopt the Mindset “We Are All Still Learning.”
Everyone makes mistakes. Even the most experienced and well-trained professionals flub things up from time to time. It’s part of being human.
In the military, mistakes can cost lives, so it’s vital to minimize them. However, even great military leaders recognize that making mistakes and learning from them got them to where they are. The late Colin Powell once said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
As a leader, it’s essential to let others know that making mistakes is part of learning. Leaders who promote a culture of accountability communicate that it’s OK to make mistakes as long as a) we do everything to mitigate the consequences and b) we change the process to avoid making the same mistake again.
It’s not OK to make a mistake and let other people bear the consequences of your mistake. That’s the opposite of accountability. Upon discovering their mistakes, accountable people own up to them and then immediately work to reduce their mistakes’ burden on others.
Learning from mistakes includes reflecting on lessons learned and putting systems or controls in place to prevent the same mistake from happening again. A lesson isn’t genuinely learned until you’ve changed the process to prevent that mistake from happening again.
As legendary industrialist Henry Ford once said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
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Share Your Mistakes and What You Learned From Them
The most impactful way for leaders to stop blaming and instead demonstrate that mistakes are learning opportunities is to admit their own mistakes and share what they learned.
A senior manager at one of my clients’ companies shared the following experience: “I was coordinating a team that had just been given a new service offering they were supposed to provide to our clients. They were overwhelmed and concerned with the news, so I spent most of the meeting presenting ways to solve their concerns. I could tell they left the meeting frustrated. Upon reflection, I realized that I prescribed the solutions before giving them enough opportunity to discuss their feelings and concerns.
“I called another team meeting and started off by acknowledging that I screwed up, then apologized to them. After they got over the initial shock of a manager admitting a mistake, I gave them time to express their concerns without me jumping in to solve them. Not only did they
leave that meeting in a much better frame of mind than they had the previous meeting, but the trust that was built allowed them to be vulnerable, admit their own mistakes, and learn from them.”
Admitting your mistakes creates the psychological safety for others to follow suit. However, simply admitting your mistakes is not enough. When leaders admit their mistakes and share what they learned from them, the reason for the confession becomes clear. We acknowledge our mistakes so we can learn from them. No acknowledgment, no learning. No learning, no improvement.
When leaders admit their mistakes and share what they learned from them, others feel safe to admit their mistakes, and they begin to take more ownership of problems.
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Remember the “Systems Approach” Mantra
What if, after you admit your mistakes, others don’t follow suit? How can you help others see their mistakes without blaming them?
Commit the following saying to memory: Weak leaders ask, “Who’s at fault?” Strong leaders ask, “Where did the process break down?”
This simple question, “Where did the process break down?” is your secret weapon to fight the urge to blame. It reminds you that the problem is not usually with people; it’s with the system. Our brains are hardwired to look for simple explanations. However, most problems are caused by factors such as human error.
When problems are identified, leaders who ask this question enlist people as problem-solvers rather than provoke them to become defensive or deflect blame elsewhere. This question engages the problem-solving part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) instead of triggering the defensive part of the brain (the amygdala).
Influential leaders care about people and results. Asking, “Where did the process break down?” demonstrates they care about both. By focusing on the process instead of the person, leaders avoid injuring their team members’ self-respect. This question also demonstrates that leaders will not accept poor results, and they expect their team members are smart enough to figure out how to change the process to ensure they get the right results next time.
In contrast, managers who insist on asking “Who’s at fault?” with a serious intention to discover the truth will not like where that question takes them because it will likely lead back to them somehow.
In sum, 1) recognize and believe that we are all still learning, 2) admit your mistakes and share what you learned from them, and 3) remember the “systems approach” mantra. These three simple tactics will help you fight your natural reflex to blame and make it easier for others to take greater accountability for problems and solutions.
