Stopping The Blame Game

It is a known fact that there is no healthy consequence of playing a blame game. People who tend to blame others for their own mistakes end up losing their status and learn less in comparison to people who take ownership for their mistakes. A good leader should try to create an atmosphere of psychological safety as it promotes learning, creativity, and innovation.

 Studies have found that merely being exposed to someone making a blame attribution is enough to encourage people to blame other people for totally unrelated failures. This happens because when people blame others, they are inadvertently trying to protect their egos. The goal of protecting our own self-image spreads like a germ and everyone tries to join the bandwagon by blaming others for their failures.

Some simple steps that can be taken to prevent the blame game are listed below:

• Do not blame others for your own mistakes: Resist the temptation to point your blaming finger on someone else. You must be strong enough to accept responsibility for your actions. This will not only boost your self-respect, but will also encourage a healthy atmosphere in your workplace or your home.

• Try to set an example before others by accepting your failures: Only a person who is psychologically secure can muster the courage to accept one’s failures. By owning up to your failures you can foster an environment of inner security wherein people do not shy away from accepting the blame for their failures.

• Try adopting a constructive attitude while blaming others: If there is a genuine need to share someone else’s mistake in public, try to adopt a constructive attitude with the highlight being on learning from the mistake and not to insult the person involved.

• Focus on learning from your mistakes: If somebody is brave enough to accept his/her mistakes, you must try to focus on the learning from the outcome. Progressive organizations encourage failures as a part of the learning process. Avoiding mistakes only creates an atmosphere where people are afraid of taking risks.

• Focus on moving forward: Do not keep regretting for your failure forever as you will not be able to move forward if you keep looking over your shoulder and keep carrying your baggage of dejection. Make an action plan for your future and ensure that you do not repeat the mistakes you committed in the past.

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You must always remember that no one wins in the blame game. If you point one finger towards the other person, there are three fingers pointing back at you. When you blame someone else, you end up feeling miserable. Blaming can result in isolation and you can end up destroying valuable relationships.