The delegation is two of the buzzwords that are being used frequently when we talk about how to stop the blame game at work. Yet these two important concepts are often misunderstood. Often people hear about them and read about them but they have no idea what they mean. In this article, I am going to clarify these concepts and explain how you can use them to improve your performance and increase productivity. I am not saying it’s
Let’s start with blame. Blame has a very unique meaning for many people. For some, it is a negative word that connotes laziness, disinterest, or even arrogance. For others, it is a positive word that connotes professional concern or sincere efforts to solve problems. When we talk about stopping the blame game in meetings, let’s not forget the important role of fear. For example, if a meeting goes very badly, everyone will feel that it is their responsibility to make things better and that they should not be afraid to step up to the plate and do so.
Yet fear has a completely different meaning for different people. In fact, a certain level of fear is actually necessary to bring about change. Let’s look at an example: if everybody knows that the boss is going to fire all of the employees at some point, without exception, there would be very few people who would take the risk of standing up to him and requesting that he consider giving everyone their jobs back.
Yet such a scenario is perfectly normal and does happen in many workplaces. What is more unusual and, to a certain extent, unprecedented is the fact that it never occurs when the boss does not intend to go ahead and fire employees. Instead, everyone who works in that office stands up to him and asks him to reconsider. That’s the critical difference between a blame game and effective leadership.
When people are willing to stand up to a boss, they have a much better chance of success than those who just try to keep their heads down and pretend as if nothing is going wrong. In the case of how to stop the blame game at work? The person who brings it up first should be rewarded. If nobody points out that the problem is big and that the boss has allowed it to go on for too long, everyone in the group will automatically believe that it is all their fault. The person who brought the issue up should never be blamed, even if he is right on the whole this
Yet the opposite is what usually happens. Everybody becomes defensive, especially the person with the complaint. Even if the issue was not resolved promptly or was not addressed properly in the first place, the person who brought it up will be criticized and may even be said to be trying to deflect blame.
However, the person with the complaint needs to be able to see where the problem actually lies. Without that understanding, pointing the finger at someone cannot be an effective solution. It will likely turn into a blame-shifting session that will result in more arguing and less productive work. People often say that they are just trying to be fair in a work situation.
That’s not really how it works. Fairness is good when there is a specific problem but it becomes bad when everybody throws the same accusations in the air and nobody can back up their statements.
How to stop the blame game at work? It takes a lot of self-reflection and awareness to know when to stop and who to listen to. If people are trying to blame others all the time, there will be no space left for constructive communication. People need to hear that they have to take responsibility for their actions and then they can address the issues and work together to find solutions.
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