This weeks column: Hands

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have found it super easy to start playing the blame game when things don’t go my way.
Oh wait, is that spinning? Or is that political divisiveness?
No, I’m not going to go there – at least not yet.
I’m just talking about the small day to day stuff.
How easy is it to blame your co-workers when sales aren’t up, or blame your husband or wife when the kids won’t behave, or blame your kids when you have a pounding headache?
(For the record, I have no experience with the last two – but its what I’ve heard).
Anyways, we all want to place the blame elsewhere in our attempts to look better than we really are.
And in an effort to cut down on blaming others, we’ve adopted a “No-Blame-Policy” here in our office that is starting to become effective. — I think.
“The Blame Game Stops Here” is the 2nd inner-office slogan I’m preaching.
The first was, “The Status Quo Is No Mo.”
We want our paper to be different than the rest. We don’t want to toe-a-line. We’re putting a stop to the blame game and taking responsibility for all we can.
I feel a bit like one of those feel good motivational speakers, but I’d rather do that than bad mouth others who can’t be there to defend themselves.
The book of Job says, “But those who do right will continue to do right, and those whose hands are not dirty with sin will grow stronger.”
Max Lucado asks in his book, “Just Like Jesus,” what if someone were to do a documentary of just your hands?
Ouch. Would my hands be shown giving or taking? Working or resting? Pointing a finger in blame, or pointing a finger back and me and taking responsibility?
It’s easy to point blame as our hands sit by idle. But instead of doing that, why don’t we get out of our chairs and do something worthwhile to better the situation?
The last two weeks, while politicians were placing blame on each other, churches and non-profits were saying, “We don’t care who’s to blame here, let’s get our hands dirty and get these people out of New Orleans and into a safe, dry enviroment.”
Even our nation’s most valued treasure, our nation’s celebrities were trudging through toxic waters to help people out of their homes, while politicians were looking to blame each other.
I sent out a question via e-mail to a number of local presidents, VP’s and marketing folks to see what advice they might give President Bush in the wake of Katrina.
Some of their results were very interesting.
“My advice: Don’t worry about public image; what people will see and remember is results. He has two problems.
“First, he needs to get the region back to a normal way of life and start the rebuilding. Put a good leader in charge, give him the resources he needs and let them do the job. Secondly, we need to fix our system for dealing with catastrophes by eliminating bureaucracies, red tape and petty power struggles.”
– Pat Christ, HH City Council
“I think what he’s done so far has been good. He has recognized the deficiencies in the response and put heat on the FEMA director.
“He has also come out and publicly taken blame.
“But, that’s not going to fix the problem. I don’t think money will fix the problem.
“Pouring 50-150 billion dollars in the region with little oversight and no real coordinated plan will not work.
“I think we saw that the biggest breakdown was at the state and local level.
“My suggestion would be to put the department of homeland security and FEMA under the coastguard.
“Maybe even tie border patrol into the same agency. It was very apparent that two things worked really well in this relief effort.
“The military and local churches. Let the local churches help and don’t throw money at things that are already being taken care of. And. . . get more organized.”
– David Leigh, CEO Harvest Technologies, Belton
“Stay personally involved, keep pushing the response teams and insure aid is prompt without red tape.”
– Dr. Jerry Bawcom, President UMHB
None of those who responded said, “Find out who’s to blame. They all said, “Get the job done.”
Quit worrying about who you can point the finger at in you situation and get the job done, then move on and figure out how you can improve next time.
I do have to give props to Bush Tuesday for taking blame. I know he hated to admit failure, but it needed to be done.
In leadership roles, it may not be your total fault, but you have to take responsibility for those under you.
And remember, while you may be pointing one finger my way, you have three more pointing back at you.
Oh and “Brownie – you’re doing a heck of a job.”