Sunday, August 20, 2006

Follow-up to my bus posting

I received some interesting feedback on my bus posting. I feel it's necessary to follow-up since I think the comments are completely fair and they exposed some points I should have made.

Comment #2:
"Although its a noble thought, in reality not many organizations reward individuals for "taking one for the Gipper." "

This is a very true statement, many organization do not reward individuals for taking the blame.
"To take the hit for someone else's mistakes -- is a mistake."

True sometimes, but the key to all of this is having aircover from your boss. If they are measuring you on results and not on the number mistakes (real or assumed) you are in good shape.

Critical for taking the blame is the ability for you to solve the problem so it doesn't resurface again. If your work to fix the problem then leads to better company results that your boss sees along with other leadership the blame won't matter anymore. Usually people already know who the responsible parties are but due to various political reasons finger pointing isn't efficient.

If your company is filled with corporate assassins then you should probably find a new company.

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