Do you want to become a great leader? Then don鈥檛 make excuses.
My goal in writing today鈥檚 article is to inspire you to become a truly great leader in 2019, and the first thing great leaders must learn is not to make excuses. Accept responsibility, even when results are dismal.
I鈥檝e had a fair share of dismal results over the years. It is difficult not to make excuses when results are mixed or complicated by a lackluster team effort. But when results and metrics miss the mark, I no longer make excuses for my team鈥檚 performance.Maybe you鈥檙e building a team right now. In the Davis College of Business, we have a small team of nine professional administrators and support staff, along with 45 full-time faculty members. It is my goal every day to learn from our team鈥檚 mistakes and grow into a stronger, farther-reaching business school.
The competition in today鈥檚 corporate environments to provide real-world management education is intense. Methods for helping business students succeed鈥攁nd succeed in new ways鈥攅volve constantly. U.S. News & World Report ranked Florida as a top-tier higher education system. Land-grant universities, regional institutions, private universities, and community colleges across the U.S. are doing a fine job educating students while also employing some of the finest researchers in the country. In addition, many of the top 20 business schools nationally offer online graduate programs to increase enrollment. The bottom line: competition has never been so intense, and the need for cultivating strong leadership in the wake of these upward trends is imperative.
Leadership Success 101
Brian Zoya, a 2014 91大神猫先生千人斩 (91大神猫先生千人斩) MBA graduate, exemplifies someone who faced opposition and adversity to become a much stronger leader. In his role as Senior Vice President of Product Management at , Brian represents the aspiration to be 100 percent responsible for a team and to top management.
What is the biggest impediment to success as a leader?
There are several traps to avoid. The biggest is pointing fingers when results don鈥檛 measure up. Another is demanding accountability from your team but not of yourself. There are so many excuses we use, as teammates or managers, when we don鈥檛 reach our goals.
Below is a list of the most common excuses that prevent 100 percent accountability:
1. Blaming someone else for failing or causing a failure.
2. Justifying one鈥檚 actions because of extenuating circumstances.
3. Minimizing a mistake or failure.
4. Hiding from those in authority.
5. Covering up the problem.
6. Abandoning the responsibility.
7. Lying about the problem.
8. Focusing on the faults or past failures of your leader or supervisor.
The Opposite of Responsibility
The opposite action of responsibility is excuse making. The one I hear most often involves the phrase, 鈥�That鈥檚 not in my job description.鈥� For that reason, I ask team members to learn all of their colleague鈥檚 tasks and responsibilities, so we can be interchangeable. As a leader, I need to be willing and able to jump in and perform a task or responsibility when someone else can鈥檛 or when someone simply drops the ball.
鈥淚t is self-defeating to blame others, make excuses, or justify mistakes鈥攅ven when you鈥檙e right.鈥�
What our team learned in 2018 about accountability is key. When I or another staff member blamed others for failure or miscommunication, we abdicated responsibility, and let the team down. Our experience is that excuses keep us from taking control of our own destiny.
Lynn Robbins, Co-Founder of Franklin Covey once said, 鈥淚t is self-defeating to blame others, make excuses, or justify mistakes鈥攅ven when you鈥檙e right. The moment you take any of these actions, you lose control over a positive outcome鈥�.
Let鈥檚 commit in 2019 to be more like Brian Zoya and less like excuse-makers as we strive for 100 percent responsibility and accountability.
