Hiding Behind the Economy (Part 2)
I want to thank Lance Haun over at Your HR Guy for a terrific post yesterday called “Welcome to the Excuse Economy.” Lance addresses head-on a very important point about personal accountability.
Being personally accountable for your own actions isn’t easy. It’s so much easier to say it’s the other guy’s fault, or our government’s fault, or a big, bad corporation’s fault. It’s hard to say, “I messed up so let me make it right. Let me regain your trust and confidence.”
I’ve touched on this before. There are a lot of people (and companies) who are blaming all of their challenges on the economy.
- I can’t get a job because of the economy.
- We can’t sell anything because of the economy.
- No sense working harder because people just aren’t buying (because of the economy).
You’ve probably heard it too. But don’t get me wrong. There are many individuals and businesses that have been hit hard by this economic downturn through no fault of their own. However, we need to differentiate between those organizations who have the right players in place and are working at a full-court press to make rain versus those who are throwing up their hands and just blaming their lackluster sales on the economy.
Individuals need to hold themselves accountable for delivering results for themselves and their companies. If you have all the right pieces in place for customers to buy your product/service…but they don’t, I can allow the economy argument. But, if you don’t have those pieces in place, then it’s really not the economy…it’s lack of commitment, efficiency and productivity.
The first step to our economic recovery is not allowing excuses and holding people accountable. Thanks Lance, for putting personal accountability right where it needs to be – under the microscope.
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