

Are You the Shoulder-Shrugger or the Commitment-Keeper?
Let’s be honest: No one wants to entertain excuses — even perfectly good ones.
“The dog ate my homework.”
Even though this famous excuse is rarely used, what it symbolizes is all-too-familiar: an aversion to admit accountability. What’s more, the urge to excuse one’s blunders rather than shoulder them reveals a bigger issue: a lack of character.
Let’s be honest: No one wants to entertain excuses — even perfectly good ones. We value friends who are reliable, we promote employees who are consistent, we love spouses because when they wrong us, they rectify it. Not for nothing did the sign on Harry Truman’s desk proclaim, “”
Of course, emergencies arise, and we all screw up from time to time. Yet it’s how you fix things that counts, that makes you who you are.
For example, did your car break down? Do what did when this happened to him while house-hunting with a client: call a cab. “The show must go on,” explained. No excuses.
How about this well-worn crutch? “I was stuck in traffic… And parking was even worse.” Anyone who’s ever sat behind a steering wheel has bumped into these predicaments. That you didn’t prepare for them indicates a preference to make others wait rather than show up early. No excuses.
Here’s my favorite refrain: “I’ve been busy.” Nope. We make time for what’s important to us. Why not just say you dropped the ball and apologize? And then make up for it. No excuses.
If you say you’ll do something, don’t make your counterpart follow-up for an ETA. If you agree to call at a certain time, don’t make the person on the other end of the line wait. If a request is ambiguous, ; .
If you’re nodding, you’ll be gratified to know you’re in good company. At Apple, whenever an executive reached the level of vice president, . Jobs imagined the garbage in his office wasn’t being emptied, and when he asked the janitor why, the janitor shrugged. The locks were changed, and the janitor didn’t have a key.
This is understandable coming from someone who empties trash bins for a living. As Jobs put it, “When you’re the janitor, reasons matter.” But when you’re a VP, he continued, “reasons stop mattering.”
What matters, I would add, are commitments.
This Rubicon separates the shoulder-shrugger from the commitment-keeper — or the staffer from the manager, the manager from the VP, the VP from the C suite. To the commitment-keeper, it doesn’t matter who or what’s at fault; an excuse signifies a personal failure. To the commitment-keeper, nothing is more than important than keeping your word, and thus your integrity.
Think of this the next time you find yourself in a hole. Will you dig out with an alibi or accountability? The choice is yours.
No excuses.
is the president of the , a social media agency in Arlington, Va. He tweets at @.
4 Comments
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John Mason says:
As the office assistant my job every Monday is to empty the rubbish bins Put out the large garbage bin for collection early Tuesday. Well today when I was doing my rounds the Regional Manager was interviewing another employee. I did not interrupt the meeting. First thing Tuesday I will collect the rubbish from the Regional Manager’s office and it can go the following Tuesday
Judy Dick says:
Jonathan, thank you for your article. It resonated so loudly and as I sat here nodding, I thought, ‘Yes! At last someone is reminding us to be accountable for our actions or lack of.’ I hear you loud and clear and as an owner of a business, it remains imperative in my life to honour my appointments. I don’t give two hoots what excuse can be dreamed up for not showing up. Giving an excuse is simply letting down the team. Your team! Integrity and reputation is paramount in my work and I maintain it diligently. No excuses at all. I’ll add here that in a lot of situations, procrastination can injure one as well as inner fear. Both must be eliminated immediately if one is to grow both personally and professionally.
Thank you for sharing this interesting write.
Judy
Anonymous says:
It is not rocket science to pick out the genuine article as opposed to the BS merchants!
[email protected] says:
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for the article. As Stephen R. Covey said in his book “The 7 Habits Of HIghly Effective People”, you either control the outcome within your circle of action, or learn to accept the fact when things are out of your circle of action. Whenever my subordinate give me an excuse, I question them if they have done all that they can, within their circle of action. Usually, the answer is that they haven’t, and they see instantly that they’re giving an excuse without me pointing it out.
– Steff