Number 146
In The Blame Game, psychologist Ben Dattner suggests that our careers will be greatly influenced by whether or not we fall into the trap of mishandling the distribution of blame when things go wrong. He says that it is human nature to want to grab credit and escape blame. But we can be more successful, and also influence the culture around us, by understanding this human tendency and behaving in ways that are more thoughtful and strategic.
Dattner looks to personality psychology to explain why it is that some people have such difficulty in coping with failure and assigning blame. He says that we may be inclined to play the blame game in some way because of characteristics built into our personalities. Relying on earlier research, he suggests that many of us may fall into one of these three personality categories:
- Extrapunitive. These people look anywhere but themselves to explain away problem situations. They consistently blame their mistakes on other people or external factors. They may overreact to minor mistakes or even anticipate failure before it happens. But they look for excuses if the error seems to be theirs, perhaps blaming whoever assigned the task.
- Impunitive. Members of this group may become angry or hurt when held responsible for errors. But they tend to avoid getting in that situation by spinning the facts, denying problems and remaining vague about outcomes.
- Intropunitive. These folks direct blame inward, perhaps to an extreme extent. They may be so worried about failure that they cannot make decisions. They may overreact so much to criticism that others are reluctant to offer feedback.
If you think that you might fall within one of these categories, Dattner suggests that you look within yourself as a way to grow beyond your personality type. He says “people who master the dynamics of credit and blame cultivate self-knowledge to the point where they can perceive their own tendencies with the same perspective and accuracy that they have in observing others’ and remain focused on the long term. Self-knowledge and a thoughtful and balanced approach to giving and getting credit and blame go hand-in-hand.”
But what if you find yourself in a blaming culture? Dattner says that it is still important to start the change process with yourself. “Everyone has much more control over how they personally react to credit and blame, and how they dispense both, than they have over how anyone else does.”
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