“It seems to me probably that any one who has a series of intolerable positions to put up with must have been responsible for them to some extent… they have contributed to it by impatience or intolerance, or brusqueness, or some provocation.”
Robert Hugh Benson
Politics is a management reality that will give us as much challenge as it does headaches.
Learning to face reality is a different process than becoming adept at avoiding it. The reality of office politics too often degrades into a no-win blame game. When something goes awry it seems the leaders focus first on whom to blame and then on what happened or what needs to happen next.
Again, it is normal to experience some fear when such craziness affects your job. We are not interested in helping you not feel something which is perfectly normal to feel when the powerful act like children.
What Claudia and I discuss in this week’s show is how we actually step away from our own leadership opportunities in order to avoid experiencing this ordinary fear.
Don’t let the fear of being unfairly blamed hold you back from the very opportunity you’ve been waiting and working for!
Listen in.
What is the difference between providing an explanation and making an excuse?
“It’s your fault!”
Whether your own words or words being said about you, they are decision-making killers.
If failure is a blame opportunity instead of a learning opportunity, then chances are you don’t gravitate toward making identifiable decisions. After all, if it doesn’t work out, then it’s your fault and there will be some sort of blaming consequence or punishment involved. So why bother?
If that sounds childish, it is. Leaders and teams that blame are using childhood finger-pointing to divert attention.
The trick is to own one’s decisions and be proud of it. Yes, even if they don’t work out. The difference lies is remaining in on-going decision-making mode and not shifting into conclusion-drawing blaming mode. One is a learning stance. The other is a judgment stance. One is coaching on the playing field. The other is name-calling from the sidelines.
In learning mode, we are able to adjust right away when a decision doesn’t work out as anticipated. We are motivated to say involved and make any necessary improvements. In blaming mode, time slips by while fault is assigned and consequences meted out. Morale drains away, and we become increasingly gun shy about sticking our necks out with future decisions.
If you have trouble making decisions at all, try adopting an Own-It, Learn-From-It and Adjust-Quickly approach to decision-making. It will change your life. And you’ll make better decisions along the way!
(Find the entire podcast/discussion series Decision-Making with Poise here.)