I can’t believe he said that…

I was recently on a trip with a delayed flight. Naturally, passengers were getting antsy as we waited.

Then, the gate agent came on the loudspeaker and made an announcement that went against all the advice I'd ever give a leader or organization. I was shocked.

I share it all in this quick tip video.

• Read the video transcript

  I was recently on a trip, and of course my flight was delayed, not by a lot, but by enough that everyone sitting around the gate was frustrated and confused because we could see our plane was there ready for us, and we didn't know why we were delayed.

  Well, eventually the gentleman who was managing the gate came on the loudspeaker and announced that we were delayed because our flight attendants had not yet arrived. They had not arrived to the airport, and I was shocked that he did this because he could have said a number of different things to calm the frustration, but instead he chose to throw his colleagues under the bus and this helped nothing. Maybe it made him look a little bit better, but certainly did not help the reputation of the airline overall.

  Now, it's easy to look at this situation and say, I can't believe he did that. But the truth is, for most of us, when we are in a situation where we are frustrated, we are very quick to point blame at someone or something else.

  In fact, just recently, I was the first one up in the house in the morning, headed out the door to go to the gym, and I walk into the garage and the garage door was wide open. It had been open all night long, and I bet you can guess the first thought that came into my head that was, who did this? Who left the garage door open all night? Then I paused and I thought for a moment, and I remembered, oh my goodness, I was loading some stuff into my car the night before, and I'm the one who left it open. But how quick I was to look to shift the blame on someone else.

  This is one of the most toxic traits that I see in teams and organizational cultures. Cultures where we're not willing to take ownership. Instead, we're looking to shift the blame. And the truth is, when we do that, we actually lose any sort of control or power to influence the situation. If we think it is all because of somebody else, we have no opportunity to actually influence a positive change.

  So I want to encourage you, if you're in a situation right now where you are frustrated or one pops up soon before you look to point blame at someone or something else, pause and think, how am I possibly contributing to this? What could I do to influence this and drive a more positive direction?

  Look for ways to take ownership and to find creative solutions rather than shifting the blame on someone or something else.