Most Sri Lankan leaders use their emotions even in professional communication – and with pre-conceived notions and assumptions.
They take pride in showing off their power and authority by raising their voices and blaming others. Diplomacy in communication in navigating a discussion to reach the best solution drawing from everyone’s strength is not common among our leaders.
Blame has the ability to place seeds of doubt, frustration, and general disengagement from work. If employees are concerned that they will be blamed for a mistake they will be less interested in collaborating or focusing their efforts to be aggressive, creative, make suggestions, and confidently bring up their ideas to remain and succeed in business in this tough environment.
When you begin to create a cycle of blame within your team, it won’t take long for it to spread to the rest of your organisation across all levels. Blame can run rampant within everyday dialogue and conversion because precedent has been set of “shifting the burden” instead of ownership.
Mistakes happen, but learning how to talk and encourage your employees in a constructive manner can help change how they perform afterwards. They are humans with real feelings, not robots to command at will. One of the major side effects of blame is that it can create office gossip or banter.
Nobody likes to be a part of a business organisation that dilutes work efforts because of a blaming culture in the organisation.
If an organisation that does not place high priority on basic human values, mental health, self-love and respect, it wouldn’t take too long for the best employees to walk out.
Having a blame culture affects everyone and your top talent will leave for greener pastures if they feel there isn’t a performance encouraging culture thus comfortable space to receive feedback or criticism respectfully. As a leader you need to stop this train before it pulls out of the station. Don’t leave any room for speculation or theory with regard to a person feeling they were blamed.
Good cop and bad cop
Whether you are an executive, manager, associate, or employee, blame is an employee trait you should to eliminate as quickly as possible from your work environment. If you have ever been a part of a project or meeting where something goes wrong and the reaction follows different scenarios from “Whose fault is it?” to a group or person singling out another team for poor performance, then you have had an unfortunate experience of how blame trickles into work. It’s awkward, uncomfortable, and casts a seed of negativity that has the ability to grow whether you are the blamer, person being blamed, or a teammate who witnessed the interaction.
Blame should never be used as a strategy or method to inspire your team to work harder. The whole “good cop” “bad cop” approach shouldn’t even be a method you use to challenge those around you. In fact, it does just the opposite. When a leader or teammate communicates with blame, the results could be costly for the entire organisation.
When an individual or team feels singled out for underperforming they can begin to feel shame, inadequacy, disengagement, and reduce productivity.
How a leader or team responds to problems reveals a lot about their character, ethics, and communication at work. When you take an approach to blame versus using accountability to create an effective dialogue for change, the long-term impact can be disastrous. When a team member feels disrespected or undervalued, they’ll begin to mentally and emotionally withdraw from communication at work out of fear or worry which can reduce the flow of information.
Communication is the lifeblood of a positive work culture and after that is eliminated, there is no progress. If you can see or identify an employee distancing themselves from you or their team because of blame, it needs to be addressed immediately.
Blame can be one of the most frustrating and disheartening methods used in the workplace, but it can be fixed. All is not lost.
When the chips are down, it’s time to turn it around and change the approach from blame to structured communication that uplifts your employees.
It means you may have to do some additional homework to change your communication style. Tone, voice, and diction can play a large role in how an employee receives your feedback and this could be a make or break moment that reflects your effectiveness as a leader.
Never react
If an employee comes to you expressing sentiments of failure or worry about their performance on a project, listen first. Don’t bite their head off at the first chance you get. It can be tempting to only hear the negative aspects of the conversation, but without listening you will be unable to understand and help to solve the problem.
A team comprises individuals, but the success or failure of a team should never be placed on the shoulders of one person. Make sure you are creating an environment where regardless of one person or team, the organisation understands that a win is a win for everyone and the same with a loss.
There is always room for improvement and growth in an organisation regardless of the size or industry. You can create a positive work environment by changing how you engage with employees.
The first step forward is improving communication, preventing a blame culture in your workplace, and enhancing your leadership skills through clear delegation and guidance.
