Don't be a player of the blame game. Your small business will have problems. Errors will happen by your vendors, customers, suppliers, your staff and you. Don't focus on blame. That is a waste of time and energy. Focus on correcting the issue and moving forward. Stopping the blame game is a great way to empower your small business towards accelerated growth.

It is our human nature to divert blame. We never want to be at fault. Accept that mistakes will happen. Not everything that happens in your small business will be a good thing. You can't be perfect and stop every bad thing from happening. What you can do however, is to not play the blame game.

I remember a story from my consulting years. I was a junior consultant on a large accounting project and I remember one of the managers stating that he wanted to bring in a tape recorder to the meetings to record the client comments. He was certain that he had listened to them and did what they had wanted. The client dissatisfaction with an accounting system, was their fault because they couldn't specifically explain what their requirements where.

The clients might not have been specific enough in their descriptions of their needs, but my manager was really missing the point. Do you appreciate it when people prove you wrong? Does 'proof' that you were wrong help the situation? This is a best case scenario of the blame game. This manager wanted to bring in a tape record to help him document the blame. What a waste of effort.

He could have paraphrased, and asked better questions, and repeated their requirements to encourage more effective communications. Assigning blame is a time waster. Collaboration is productive, and a great asset to help you build your small business.

Work to stop the blame game in your workplace. Stopping the blame game is a great strategy to empower you to grow your small business.