You know what really irks me? People in leadership who sit there and point fingers at their subordinates. Placing all the blame on others. The simple fact of the matter is that being in a leadership role, be it a manager for retail company, ceo of some fortune 500 or just a simple project manager like myself, the majority of the blame rests on your shoulders.

Let’s take myself for example. As a project manager, it’s up to me to make sure that each project I undertake is developed in an orderly fashion with the highest quality and rid of any bugs we can find before it goes live. If it’s not on time it’s my fault, because I didn’t push myself and the rest of the team hard enough to finish with-in the deadline or I didn’t give correct instructions on what needs to be done. If the quality is crap, it’s because I didn’t force the graphic designer to put their heart and soul into the project. If it’s riddled with bugs, it’s because I didn’t make the team test it enough before letting it go live.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Your subordinates are just as guilty as you are, because they didn’t come to you with questions or concerns, or they didn’t seek extra training, but even if that’s the case, it’s still your responsibility to go around and check up throughout the day. Ask them if everything’s going smoothly, if they need any help or if they need extra guidance.

In the military we used the saying “shit rolls downhill”. Which basically meant that if someone in a leadership role got “chewed out”, then the rest of the squad, platoon, company or battalion would as well afterward by the initial person that got “chewed out”. That has to be the stupidest fucking concept I have ever witnessed. I understand that you need to maintain a level of “alpha dog” over your “pack”, but come the fuck on. Negative reinforcement is bullshit, and society has shown time and time again that it brings you barely any real results. The only way negative reinforcement works, is if you can actually do physical or psychological harm to the person (fascist dictator type shit), which is illegal in the US (aside from the military and their corrupt ass-backwards style of the legal system).

Basically, in short.. Don’t treat your employees like shit, and don’t just sit there and point fingers at them because *you* fucked up. Remember that without your employees, you wouldn’t have a business – period.