Stop Saying: "It’s Not My Fault"

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“It’s not my fault” can be a fact, but it’s also a trap. When teams lead with explanations instead of ownership, responsibility gets diluted, problems get escalated, and leaders turn into bottlenecks. John Wondolowski and Greg Powell break down how that pattern forms and why it’s so common in otherwise smart, hardworking organizations.

Greg and I use Dr. Durst’s Management By Responsibility (MBR) model to translate the behavior into something you can coach. You’ll hear what the conformance level sounds like in real workplace language, why the core motivation is often safety and approval, and how an external locus of control fuels blame shifting. Then we contrast it with the achievement level, where people still acknowledge obstacles but stop hiding behind them and start taking initiative, stating intent, and delivering results.

We also get practical about what leaders can do next: replacing blame questions with coaching questions that drive action, using SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) to turn long explanations into clear recommendations, and building psychological safety that holds up under pressure. The takeaway we keep coming back to is simple: responsibility is not about blame, it’s about power.

If you want your meetings to shift from excuses to plans and your culture to reward accountability, listen now, share it with a manager on your team, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next. If it resonates, leave a review and tell us: where does “it’s not my fault” show up most in your world?

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Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell