Everyone is bound to make mistakes, nobody has a perfect performance index, however; it is imperative to have the sense of accountability to accept your mistakes and take responsibility for resolving them. There is basically no room for excuses within great organisations and it has been said that great leaders sometimes have explanations, never excuses. It is important to keep your organization focused on the solution and not the problem. Here are three common employee excuses to look out for:
“I am not aware I was permitted to do it”
This excuse can be valid in a situation where the individual is relatively new and from an organisation where employees are instructed to stay in their lanes and simply contribute in line with their job description. However in some companies, the underlying statement is that no job description is set in stone and employees are encouraged to try new things without fear. In fact, the only thing employees should not be “allowed” to do is assume that the answer is “no.” When employees are empowered along these lines, they become open to admitting when they need help.
“I did not know where to get the answer from”
Empowering employees involves giving them the license to ask questions about anything they find challenging. You can easily identify great employees because when they encounter a problem, rather than just saying, “This is impossible,” they ask themselves, why it is happening. To solve a problem, the first step is to define what that problem is. Hence, an employee who doesn’t know what he/she is searching for won’t know where to get the answers from. Collaboration and teamwork are indispensable in solving complex problems. Motivate your employees to work as a team, in order to get to the root cause of some problems arising in the organization.
“I just don’t get along with…”
When a problem lingers unresolved, this type of excuse keeps rearing its ugly head. Everybody in an organisation can’t be best of friends, conflicts are bound to ensue. Co-workers will constantly be at loggerheads when there is no mutual understanding and this limits their productivity. It is up to the leadership of the organization, to encourage empathy and promote the desire to understand the view point of all parties involved in the conflict. Sadly, many organizations do nothing to stop friction from perpetuating because there is too much work that needs to be done. Don’t exploit the value each employee brings by sweeping discord under the carpet. It will continue popping up over and over again and you really don’t want to hear the same excuses more than once.
If you found this article useful, bookmark 234Finance.com or kindly follow all of our social media pages for more business tips.
