There’s a horrible disease that saps the strength of leaders and managers. It goes by the acronym ‘SSDT.’
How many times have you heard someone in your organization say, “Someone should do that”? How often do you say it yourself? All too often the response is… nothing happens. You can hear crickets chirping, and the whisper of soft backpedaling out of responsibility. Safest bet: change the subject, or reach into your bag of blameshifting tricks and say, “Not my job!”
Someone should do that. SSDT. It can sap the life out of you.
How should you, a responsible manager and sharp leader, handle these situations? What do you think when you realize there is an opportunity to do something? How do you respond when that someone might be you?
Agree and deflect
Say “not my job”
Agree and accept responsibility
Speak clearly about commitment
Blameshifting is not professional. It doesn’t move a project forward, build up a team, or add to your credibility.
Stop it.
Take responsibility. Take ownership. Even if some task or project is not expressly yours, if you’re involved, you’re in it – and take responsibility and ownership appropriately for being part of the process or system.
Here’s my question: Outside of avoiding some immediate pain (but not really), does blameshifting make anything better?
SSDT Can Sap the Life Out of You
