No person likes a finger being pointed at them and being blamed for something. Nonetheless, people often tend to blame other people within the place of work and especially, when faced with a troublesome scenario (like recessionary pressures or the fear of losing one’s job). Such circumstances launch an individual’s defensive mechanisms and frequently the easiest way out is to blame someone else.
Blaming other individuals at the workplace, particularly in public, can have more harmful results than you expect. It isn’t an act which people do not take note of and react to. According to a current study (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Stanford University and USC Marshall), blaming other people in public dramatically raises the chance that the practice will turn out to be viral and spread all through the office. This is because after we see others defending their egos, we turn defensive also and we then attempt to defend our personal self-image by blaming other people for our mistakes, which can feel good in the moment. However, in the long term, such acts might damage one’s image and be harmful to an firm as a whole. When public blaming becomes frequent practice – particularly by senior leaders – its effects on a corporation can be insidious and withering: People who’re afraid of being blamed for something turn out to be less keen to take risks, are less innovative or insightful and are much less likely to learn from their errors. That is definitely not something you need in your company, especially when it may be averted with out that a lot of hassle.
Here are a number of recommendations for dealing with the blame-game better:
- Assign blame when necessary but do so in private
- Provide reward publically to create a positive attitude in the office
- Lead by example – as a leader make it a point to publically acknowledge your errors and show how you learned from them
Amit Puri has more than 10 years of career advisory & management experience. He heads Sandbox Advisors a career, job search, recruitment & HR consulting firm in Singapore.Visit their (Career & Job Search Insights) for news &guidelines on resume examples, job interview questions, job search, career personality test & more.
