WHY DO PEOPLE MAKE UP EXCUSES?

Here are some of the craziest excuses I have found for not coming to work. Maybe some of them sound familiar?

I won't be in today. My fish is sick and I need to take it to the vet.

I won't be in today because I have come down with Spring Fever.

I have a head ache.... # 22...actual times someone at work has called in with this excuse!

I won't be in today. I'm still drunk from last night.

Last night we had a party and I woke up with a strange man in my bed!

My car ran out of gas on the way to work. I was pushing it to a gas station and I got a stomach hernia and I have to go to the doctors.

Tom Robbins says: "any one who goes to work everyday... everyday... IS sick! so, 'call in well' to work today!

I won't be coming in today, I've spent my last cent playing online bingo and I don't have any money left for the bus. Don't worry, I'll try to win it back today while I'm off!

Excuse me sir, but I won't be in today. My home is flooded and I'm currently standing on my

dresser in my second story bedroom. Thanks and have a nice day. (Sounds familiar)

Hello, I've used all of my sick days and I'm calling in dead.

I can't come in to work today because I'll be stalking my previous boss, who fired me for not showing up for work. OK?

Constipation has made me a walking time bomb.

The dog ate my car keys. We're going to hitchhike to the vet .

I'm not coming to work to day because my computer has got a virus. And my computer means more to me then this job

=)




What makes shortcomings and lapses in the team more frustrating? It’s the long list of excuses that follow. Why do people make up excuses and how do we make it stop?

One of my clients called me up and told me that one of her problems is the unremitting excuses her people throw at her when they fail to complete a task. She wasn’t complaining about her team not being able to accomplish something noteworthy but rather the rationale that they will always cough up in defense of.


I gave her several reasons why our guys never really own up to their deed (Does that sound too sexist?). I told her it wasn’t really a matter of incompetence but rather an issue of integrity. Let me give you several reasons why people try to worm their way out of these situations:




1.) TO COVER UP BEHAVIOR THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE - People make mistakes not because they wanted to nor is it because they were made up that way. Most times we fail to meet up to expectations because of our behavior towards that certain task which do not want to be made public. We don’t want everyone else to know that deep inside we don’t fully agree with this project, account or decision.


We cover up that lack of initiative and enthusiasm which eventually leads to subpar performance with a plethora of reasons why this and that won’t work. Every possible cause why things would go wrong would point to any direction outside our selves. The problem is that whatever corrective measure we use, something will go wrong because deep inside one member of our team is internally sabotaging the project albeit unwillingly. Unless this behavior is put out in the open and addressed, the troubles will just keep on surfacing.



2.) TO PLEASE EVERYBODY – Or at least try to. Your kid asks you if you can be there at the PTA meeting on a Friday knowing fully well that you’ll be swamped that day. “Sure honey I’ll try” as you rush off. Friday comes and you are swamped and do miss that meeting. That is why I normally don’t end a sales call just yet when the customer says “sure” and “I’ll try”. I would only be content when they say “certainly” or “absolutely”.


We know that we can’t please everybody, but walk around trying to do the entire opposite. It’s a case of trying to bite off more than one can chew. We get into the habit of over committing simply because we have a hard time saying no. We try to avoid conflict as much as we can or lie ourselves out of it.


If you can’t do it, why say you can in the first place?

 

3.) THEY THINK NO ONE WILL FIND OUT – We tend to conjure up those little white lies with the notion that we can actually get away with it. And most times we do but this is where it gets risky.


“Just this one time” then on to the next minute indiscretion until it snowballs and gets out of our control. We put it off for a moment, thinking we’re still in the clear. But unless the error has not been corrected or the task completed, our litany of defenses keep mounting up until at a certain point we forget what order our sequence of artificial events are.


You see, excuses are normal responses to failed expectations. I myself have failed so many times I lost count. My list of excuses has been so formidable that I had a worksheet of scenarios and possible explanations for each one. I virtually became a MAKAPILI. (if you forgot what a Makapili is, ask any kid in 5th grade) I would point to any other reason or person to fault but never myself.


That was, until I began a personal pursuit on excellence that I discovered a decisive trait that all successful people had and that is OWNERSHIP. It is the innate ability to accept full responsibility for one’s actions and decisions. Unless one takes complete ownership of his life, he will always have someone or something to blame for his shortcomings.


 In the context of organizations, here are some ways to minimize if not totally remove the excuses game:



1.) PROVIDE CONTINUOUS FEEDBACK – This goes both ways. Asking for and giving feedback. Mostly we receive updates on critical tasks when it’s dreadfully due. By then everyone else is just busy thinking of some excuse why it wasn’t met. I see this first hand all the time. Managers would blame the weather, the economy and even the financial troubles in Mongolia for their results.


By asking for and giving feedback early on, adjustments are made and progress put in the right place. Nobody wants to be told he was pronouncing depreciation as deprecation in plain view of the executive committee. You’d want to be told how you were doing early on and not late in the game where modifications are much harder to make.


And while you’re at it, confess immediately. Man up to the fact that you are not in any vicinity near your targets. It’s actually more acceptable (and encouraged) that one admits early on about his mistakes to superiors rather than lying his way out of it. In fact, ask for assistance if you really need it. A true team player gives his coach a clear picture of how he can contribute to win the game and the prudence to admit where he will need the help of the rest.




2.) MAKE THE VISION CLEAR – This was my first question to my client I mentioned above when she told me her people kept making up excuses: “Do THEY know what YOU expect from them?” I heard this funny line once that says:


“Do not assume it is a matter of common sense when it is not common to others.”

Sometimes our job descriptions are 3 pages long choc full of technical jargon with a proverbial line at the end that says “and any other task that may be assigned to him from time to time” without fully comprehending what our main tasks are. Our people get lost in translation and assumed expectations until nothing was ever done right from the get go. What do you expect? How do you know it's sub par when you don't even know what at par is?  Does he or she expect the same thing as you do? And oh, don’t say it’s just a matter of common sense.



3.) DEFINE THE IMMEDIATE GOAL – If each member of the team was to be given a major task, try define the immediate goal which when achieved, takes you closer to completing the task. Try to arrange the goals in it’s proper sequence and chart your progress one after the other.


Say you were planning to host a corporate event like a product launch or a company teambuilding, what would be the most immediate goal that would make sense of everything else when attained? Is it securing a location? Completing the guest list? Retail presence after the event? Because without achieving the most pressing purpose, none of the tasks down the line will eventually matter.




You will go through some bumps in the road and maybe come up with several excuses in hand. Sure you can get away with it but not for very long. I’ve taken that route before and never really got me anywhere.


Ownership in itself is being accountable for all your actions regardless of outcome. You are where you are now because of your past decisions and preferences whether you admit to it or not. Don’t blame the environment or the economy and most especially God for where you are now.


Don’t make an excuse or try to find one. Because the longer it takes you to do the right thing, the harder it becomes. It is you who will decide how high or low you will achieve in life.


You are the driver and God is your GPS. Now THAT’S common sense!