It is human nature to blame.

Brene Brown, author of many books on the subject of shame, blame, and vulnerability, aptly observed that blame is essentially the dispensing of pain and suffering. In other words, when things don’t go the way we would have liked we experience discomfort and in order to make ourselves feel better we place responsibility for failure on others, a process, or some aspect of our environment.

The problem with doing so is it doesn’t help us find solutions and it only compounds our discomfort by adding guilt from potentially blaming the wrong person or thing. Further, blame hinders us from pursuing solutions.

Blame is a deflection that leads to a loss of time, resources, and leadership capital.

As a leader, when something does not go the way we would like it is better to own our portion, help the team learn what needs to be learned, and collaborate to find a better solution.

The place to look for solutions is in one of three places:

• People: this is a don’t know, don’t care question. 
  • If a person does not know what to do we either need to provide greater clarity or training and we as leaders need to own the fact that we gave something to somebody who was not ready to take on the responsibility.
  • If a person does not care we as leaders also need to own the fact that we passed a baton to somebody who did not want to take hold of it.
• Process: this is typically an issue relating to collaboration. All team members need to be a part of identifying, formulating, and executing processes that allow the organization to succeed. 
• Environment: this includes both elements that we control and those that we don’t. A natural disaster is outside our control—the team needs to [and typically does] come together for resolve. How many times the phone rings before being transferred to somebody who can answer the call is within our control—the team needs to regularly review controllable environmental elements to ensure they serve the objectives of the organization.

A brief word of caution about blaming yourself. There is a huge difference between accepting responsibility and blaming yourself. Blame is negative and defeating and shrinks energy needed for finding solutions. Ownership, on the other hand, is positive and expands energy towards finding solutions.

When things go wrong great leaders focus on:

• Investigating the facts to identify the real issues (and not just symptoms)
• Collaborating with stakeholders to tweak processes and controllable environmental factors
• Providing greater clarity and consequences to minimize future missteps.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.