Insights

Some people are willing to have ideas, particularly when someone else will be responsible for testing them.

They put an idea forward, and if it succeeds, they are quick to claim ownership. It was their idea, their vision, their thinking that made it possible, but if it fails, the story changes.

Suddenly, the problem is not the idea. It was the execution. You misunderstood it. You didn't do it properly. You didn't follow the plan. Somehow, responsibility for failure has moved from the person who proposed the idea to the person who carried it out.

The psychology behind this is interesting because the person has outsourced the risk while retaining the reward.

They want the recognition that comes with being right, but they do not want the accountability that comes with being wrong.

There is nothing inherently wrong with delegating the execution of an idea. Good leaders do it every day. The difference is accountability. A leader stands behind the decision regardless of who executes it.

The problem arises when someone wants to own the success of an idea without ever owning its failure.

Some people want the credit when it works, and someone else to blame when it doesn't.

Thought-provoking reflections on life, identity and relationships, written in the style of a modern-day Socratic journal and told through poetic paradoxes and emotional honesty.

by Paul Strydom.

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Read, reflect, agree, disagree, or just see things differently.