The Blame Game

I met with a group of leaders recently, all talking about how they “Don’t have the right people on their teams.”

They even referred to some of these people as “toxic.”

They seemed to find solace in the agreement they were getting from the other leaders in the room.

I get it. Work can be hard. Leadership can be hard. So it makes sense that some leaders default to blaming their team members instead of looking inward.

So I could very easily coach you now to simply not do that. But I won’t.

Instead, I’ll coach you, when you have these moments (you may not, but most of us do), to think about the long-game. And to ask yourself what will change the behavior of these employees and ultimately lead to better results: blaming them and hoping they magically change or committing to doing better and actually developing them? To reflect and ask what haven’t I done? What misses have I had in their development? What else can I do to make them better, even if I’ve already done a lot.

Look, unless you’re willing to fire anyone who isn’t an A+, you’ll need to develop people. It might be frustrating at points. It may feel futile. It may even feel like you shouldn’t have to.

But honestly, if not you, then who? And if not now, then when?

People don’t change when there’s nothing there to change them. Stop playing the blame game. Instead, be the thing that’ll change them.