The Blame Game: Failure of Leadership

Lawrence Chinedu Obi is a cards, payments, project management and sales expert with 8+ years experience in the financial sector. He is passionate about excellence, leadership and change.

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Topics: Leadership, Resource Management, Talent Management

Someone recently told me a story about an experience a project manager had in his organization. The person in the story had a role that included reviewing bid documents before they were submitted. This particular instance had to do with a bid for a big project (one running into millions of dollars).

The documents were well packaged and delivered to the location as required, but due to a delay from another supporting unit, a particular document was not obtained and the packaged document missed the final submission deadline. The organization lost the opportunity to bid, and the board was displeased with the CEO.

The CEO told the board that his team member did not follow up on the document; hence, a “letter of displeasure” was issued to this particular person directly from the board. This story was stunning to me. I asked myself, “Is the CEO not the head of the team? How come the board bypassed the CEO and issued a caution letter to his team member?” My conclusion is that what transpired was a failure of leadership—and that is the kernel of this article.

When things go wrong in your project, as a leader who do you blame? When the hammer is about to hit your head as a project leader, what do you do? Do you look for people on your team to sacrifice for the error—or take the blame?

Many people find it very comfortable and convenient to …

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