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Most often the CEOs and other top brass of the companies resort to finding a scapegoat somewhere down the hierarchy after a fiasco. Heads often roll in the lower rungs of the organisation. The tendency to take credit for success and disown any responsibility for failure is known as self-serving bias. People resort to this because it protects their ego. However a willingness to accept responsibility for mistakes is imperative to bring amends to the situation and also regain the lost trust. Studies indicate that a CEO who takes full responsibility for failure has a greater chance of forging good relations with clients than one who shifts culpability elsewhere.

When we commit a mistake our ego comes in the way and prevents us from making a confession. Fear of reprisal and rejection engulf us. The result, we conveniently resort to a blame game. We put the blame for what went wrong on somebody else and that is the real mistake we commit.

Business writer and speaker Barry Maher says, “when you fail, when you make a mistake, keep your head – unless you can think of a lot of situations that were actually improved by panic.” The best course of action would always be to own up the mistake to ourselves and to everybody else who is affected.

Failures are stepping-stones to success. Only when you learn from your mistakes will you refrain from repeating them. However to learn from your mistakes, as a first step you must acknowledge the mistake as your own. It is a human tendency to immediately point fingers at someone else when things go awry. Most often you are reluctant to take full responsibility for things gone wrong because you are easily led by your own self-esteem and self-defense. Blaming others hardly improves the situation. If you sincerely wish to improve the situation you must learn to take sole responsibility for mistakes committed by you. Though it is not the easiest thing to do, when we accept a mistake the situation is not as bad as we imagine. “ Sorry, I botched that up, let me take care of it” is a magical phrase that can work wonders. A word of caution though- its magic wanes off if you use it all too often. So when you make that rare mistake however small or big be bold enough to admit it and show confidence to rectify the same.

You will be more than willing to do so if you realise the myriad advantages that result from accepting mistakes. It helps you find the root cause for every problem and gives you a chance to avoid such problems in future. It is a lot easier to forgive yourself. This gives you the essential confidence to tackle the situation. When you show genuine regret and signs of improvement others forgive you too. Your fear of losing your credibility when you admit to a mistake is quite unfounded. On the contrary your credibility soars up. You are recognised as an honest worker who is ready to learn from mistakes and improve. You can also do away with a lot of ill feelings in the work environment that are a natural outcome of resorting to a blame game. There is an automatic drop in your stress levels too.

If you are a manager the best recourse to stop mistakes from turning into a blame game is to lead by example. If you pretend to be right all the time you are only revealing your insecurity. So be the first one to accept responsibility for a mistake when it occurs. This also encourages the team members to come out in the open whenever things go wrong. It helps you take remedial action before it is too late. When you blame your team for failures, failures remain failures. If you want to transform failures to success here is a small tip: When the team fails, own responsibility for failure. When the team succeeds, give them the credit for success!

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