Should you accept blame for a mistake?

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

If the captain of the Titanic had not gone down with the ship, would he have blamed the iceberg for the disaster?

Probably not.

It would have been considered “dishonorable” for a longtime veteran of the sea like Capt. Edward John Smith to abdicate blame, says Carol Tavris, a social psychologist and co-author of “Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts.”

But today, she adds, accepting responsibility for our mistakes has become passé in politics, finance and the workplace in general.

Just look at the financial sector’s collapse. Few have lined up to take the fall for Wall Street’s fall.

Richard Fuld, a veteran of 158-year-old Lehman Bros., was CEO when the company collapsed in spectacular fashion last month. He testified before Congress recently and blamed the implosion on everything from short selling to the government. He maintained that his decisions and actions as the leader of the firm “were both prudent and appropriate.”

It got me thinking about what a CEO, or even a rank-and-file employee for that matter, really gains by admitting a mistake and taking the blame.

Should you fess up or deny?
On the surface, it seems Fuld has little to lose, since he is walking away with nearly $500 million in compensation earned during his tenure at the company.

That said, there could be a hidden cost to admitting any error.

“What do we think of CEOs hiding from responsibility?” asks Angie Morgan, co-author of “Leading From the Front: No-Excuse Leadership Tactics for Women.”

"Their personal integrity has gone away," she said. "Respect is the ultimate reward you can get as a leader.”

In general, does it help or hinder a career to admit mistakes and take the blame? Should you fess up — or deny, deny, deny?

There is no easy answer to these questions, experts say. It all depends on a number of factors:

• The gravity of the mistake you made.
• How you approach fixing or resolving the mistake.
• And most importantly, how understanding your managers are when it comes to screw ups.

When Morgan was an officer in the Marine Corps deployed in Australia, she made some mistakes.

On one occasion, she sent two Marines under her command into the Outback without radios or any communications tools. When they didn’t return that evening, she realized their lives could be on the line.

She immediately told her commanding officer her mistake.

“He then relayed the news via radio to units in the Outback, trying to locate the last unit that came in contact with my Marines. He utilized his communication channels to get a sense of where they were last seen, which allowed him to send out Humvees in those areas to try and locate them,” she recalls. “His actions were immediate.”

After the Marines were found, she adds, she and her commanding officer “discussed my role in the situation and what I should have done to ensure that the situation never had occurred in the first place.”

Morgan learned a valuable lesson.

“When you acknowledge mistakes, you can start looking for solutions,” says Morgan.

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