Eradicate Excuses in the Workplace™

What are the three excuses you use most often?

The first step to Eradicate Excuses in the Workplace^TM is to shift our focus from the easy work of noticing when other people are giving excuses, to the harder and more impactful work of noticing when we do it ourselves.

Here are some of my excuses:

• I was on travel
• Yesterday was too busy

These are not explanations; they are excuses.

In fact, being on travel and having a busy day doesn’t change the fact that I had the exact same amount of time as every other person on the planet, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

While we can’t cover our entire method for doing this in a two-minute video, we can give you the basics now.

We want our clients to Eradicate Excuses in the Workplace^TM by following three easy steps.

• Identify the excuse. One example is my personal favorite: “I was on travel”
• Replace the excuse with an explanation like “I didn’t make it a priority”
• State your call to action: “Here is when I will do it,” which is why this person came to speak with you in the first place.

They want to know what you WILL do, not WHY you didn’t do it.

So the first time I said “I was on travel”.

A more accountable replace would sound like this: “I’m sorry I didn’t keep the commitment. I was on travel and didn’t make it a priority. You will see the report in an excel format by 3pm MT, tomorrow, January 10”.

So what do you do?

You can start by writing down the three excuses you use most often and some more accountable language to replace those excuses.

Feel free to call your own excuses out in the moment. If you catch yourself saying something like “I was on travel”, say, “you know what, that’s an excuse. I didn’t make it a priority yesterday and I will tomorrow. Expect to see the report in your inbox by 10:00 am, Central Time tomorrow”.

Use this video in a team meeting to identify the excuses you use most often as individuals and as a team.

Make operating agreements to replace that language with clear explanations, followed immediately by a firm and specific call to action.

In upcoming months we will be talking about other aspects of Eradicating Excuses in the Workplace^TM like:

• Understanding the difference between an explanation and an excuse.

Want to know more about creating accountable cultures? Take our free assessment and buy the book here. 

With the global success of our best-selling book “Winning With Accountability, The Secret Language of High Performing Organizations” (now in its sixth printing) we are expanding on some of the best information and are on a mission to Eradicate Excuses in the Workplace^TM.

As always, we welcome your comments. Join us on facebook to share your experiences or email us at [email protected].