Tacit Responsibility
by Miki Saxon
Back in 2015 I wrote about the importance of living your own life, instead of trying to live someone else’s as seen on Instagram. Last month we considered the idea that it is our values that are the basis of true authenticity and yesterday the lesson was that mea culpa was valueless if it wasn’t sincere, AKA, authentic.
Given all that, what do you do when you
- know you messed up; and
- are incapable of admitting it?
Gurus of whatever type love to apply the 80/20 rule to situations like this, meaning that once you know/understand the problem (80%) then applying a solution is relatively easy (20%), so just do it.
Which, based on all I’ve seen and my own personal experience, is bunk.
If there’s anything I’ve learned in my life it’s that one size or solution does not fit all.
What do you do when you know you should take responsibility and just can’t make yourself do it?
Let’s start with what you don’t do.
You don’t
- shift the blame (responsibility) to another person or the group;
- pretend it didn’t happen; or
- act oblivious.
Doing the first will turn your people against you; either of the others will make you look like an idiot — and turn people against you.
So what do you do?
Discuss the problem/situation openly, tacitly admitting the source by not specifying it and encouraging the team to provide solutions, as opposed to you.
Your people aren’t stupid or you wouldn’t have hired them.
They’ll understand your actions giving you time to change your MAP, so you can admit it openly the next time — because there will always be a next time.
Image credit: Bill Ohl
May 22nd, 2019 at 10:46 am
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