John Eades* rails at the growing ‘excuse culture’ in corporate life and says good leaders refuse to make excuses or accept them from others.
The culture of accepting excuses as reality is here.
In previous generations, people were held accountable for making excuses for their behaviour or decisions.
Today’s workplace is different. Not only are we okay with rationalisation, we almost encourage it.
To give you an idea of how popular making excuses has become, a recent study found the average American will make 2,190 excuses yearly (six reasons daily) to validate their decisions.
Before you go making an excuse for the research, we’ve all been there.
Something doesn’t work out, or we are disappointed because reality didn’t meet our expectations.
When things don’t go our way, it’s easy to look for something or someone else to blame.
This is precisely what an excuse is; an attempt to lessen the blame; seek to defend or justify.
The best leaders recognise an excuse for what it is and refuse to make or accept them from others.
Allowing excuses to become a regular part of your everyday routine is a recipe for mediocrity.
What if, instead of justifying things, you embraced responsibility and became powerful?
How much better would you and your team perform if each person took ownership each day?
When it comes to leadership, many managers and executives have mastered the art of making excuses; placing responsibility onto someone else.
With this in mind, here are the most common excuses I hear and ways to turn them into statements that will help you and your team be successful.
I am waiting on someone else
Without a doubt, this is the most popular corporate excuse.
While we cannot deny there are corporate decision-making structures, this excuse is paralysing for a team working on accomplishing meaningful goals.
Instead of making this excuse, commit yourself to create a more compelling and value-oriented case for why a decision or action from someone else is needed quickly.
Commit yourself to figure out why there is a delay and what you can do to help the situation instead of sitting back, powerless.
I don’t have the money or budget
Finances and budgeting are a part of life and management.
Instead of making this excuse, commit yourself to understand the budgeting process and what you or your team can do in the future to invest in the things you know are essential.
While this might mean delaying an initiative you believe is important, it will put you in a more powerful position the next time you’re ready to invest in your team or adopt a new software tool.
I don’t have enough time
Time management is a part of every leader’s life.
The collision course of people and things needing your time and attention is endless in a position of leadership.
However, there is one lesson I have learned in studying so many great leaders: You make time for what’s important.
Instead of making this excuse, commit yourself to a time management system that works for you and your team.
Become a 5am club member, and you will be amazed at how much more time you have in your day.
It’s my team’s fault
If there is an excuse that gets my blood boiling, this is it.
Instead of making this excuse, look in the mirror and ask yourself: “What else could I do to help a team member perform better or make better decisions.”
Everyone will make mistakes when they are doing challenging work, so embrace leadership’s responsibility and stop blaming your team.
I haven’t done this before
As quickly as technology and the markets are changing, there is a good chance your team is now responsible for doing work it wasn’t doing six months ago.
Instead of making this excuse, commit yourself to a growth mindset.
Get comfortable with the idea that you can figure things out with research, hard work and collaboration with others.
It’s not only me, others are doing it as well
In this world with an ever-growing grey area, there still is right from wrong.
Understanding your core values and embracing your character is paramount in leadership.
Instead of making this excuse, take ownership of the mental and moral qualities distinctive to you and draw a line in the sand for what’s right and wrong.
You might not win in the short-term because of your character, but you will in the long-term.
Excuses are easy to make, which means you will have to work twice as hard to recognise when making them.
There is a simple trick I learned: Eliminate BCD — blaming, complaining or defending — from your language.
As Benjamin Franklin famously said: “Someone that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
Be the kind of leader who doesn’t make excuses and figures out a way to get things done.
*John Eades is the Chief Executive of LearnLoft a leadership development company. He is also the host of the Follow My Lead podcast. He can be contacted at johneades.com.
This article first appeared on John’s LearnLoft blog.
