{"id":14932,"date":"2023-10-02T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghostblogwriters.com\/?p=14932"},"modified":"2023-09-27T21:11:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T02:11:32","slug":"why-scapegoating-ruins-your-life-what-to-do-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ghostblogwriters.com\/why-scapegoating-ruins-your-life-what-to-do-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Scapegoating Ruins Your Life &#038; What to do About it"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_14933\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14933\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14933\" src=\"https:\/\/ghostblogwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/why-scapegoating-ruins-your-life-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Why Scapegoating Ruins Your Life &amp; What to do About it\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ghostblogwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/why-scapegoating-ruins-your-life-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ghostblogwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/why-scapegoating-ruins-your-life-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ghostblogwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/why-scapegoating-ruins-your-life.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14933\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@adigold1?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Adi Goldstein<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/-KobSuU7b3g?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sometimes we\u2019re unhappy with the way our leaders are handling a situation. Or maybe we don\u2019t think people are participating the way they should.<\/p>\n<p>So, we blame others for what we see as lacking in them. We reprimand and deride them for not doing what we think they should be doing.<\/p>\n<p>But this is a slippery slope, as it often leads to scapegoating. Here\u2019s why scapegoating ruins your life, and what you can do about it.<\/p>\n<h2>Scapegoating Destroys Relationships<\/h2>\n<p>We can\u2019t always trust our knee-jerk reactions, at least not in matters of business and negotiation.<\/p>\n<p>When something goes wrong, there will always be the temptation to blame someone else for what happened, rather than taking ownership for the blunder.<\/p>\n<p>In the short term, you might be able to come up with a convincing case as to why it was Joan&#8217;s or James\u2019 fault, but in the long run, no one who knows your tendency to assign blame will want to work with you anymore. Plus, your lies will probably be found out at some point.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s much easier to gain a negative reputation than to build a positive one. Blaming others will destroy relationships and leave you with a reputation you won\u2019t easily be able to downplay or repair.<\/p>\n<h2>Scapegoating Weakens Your Leadership<\/h2>\n<p>Avoiding responsibility is human nature. But for entrepreneurs and leaders, it\u2019s simply not the way. Blaming others may make you feel better about a situation temporarily, but it will cause more chaos and confusion among your team than it\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n<p>Good leaders know to take responsibility for <i>everything<\/i>. They know that everything that happens, happens under their watch. If a team member or employee makes a mistake, the leader recognizes that something was missing in how the project was originally communicated.<\/p>\n<p>A good leader isn\u2019t someone who is constantly looking for something or someone outside of themselves to assign blame to. A good leader is someone who is willing to step up and take responsibility, no matter the mistake or its consequences.<\/p>\n<h2>Scapegoating Stifles Your Progress<\/h2>\n<p>If you value your personal growth, understand that scapegoating is lazy. Instead of looking at your own faults, or thinking about what you could have done differently to have things work, it has you focusing on the perceived deficiencies of others. How can you grow when you\u2019re not focused on bettering yourself?<\/p>\n<p>You may feel that exploiting the weaknesses of others will help you get ahead, and it might for a while. But if you keep it up, the only thing you will get better at is scapegoating. You won\u2019t improve in other ways that might matter to you.<\/p>\n<h2>Stop Ruining Your Life \u2013 What to Do<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019re ready to change, observe these steps:<b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Accept responsibility<\/b>. Start taking ownership of more things. It doesn\u2019t need to be anything huge. For instance, take responsibility for the fact that the garbage wasn\u2019t taken out yesterday, whether it was your fault or not.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Take on some solo assignments<\/b>. In a situation where you\u2019re the only one working on the project, you can\u2019t blame anyone else for failure (well, you can, but you\u2019ll just look foolish).<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Give up positional leadership<\/b>. Just because you\u2019re a manager, C-suite executive or even an entrepreneur doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019re a great leader. Let go of the title and instead commit to your growth in this area. Consume materials by the likes of John Maxwell and Robin Sharma.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes we\u2019re unhappy with the way our leaders are handling a situation. Or maybe we don\u2019t think people are participating the way they should. So, we blame others for what we see as lacking in them. We reprimand and deride them for not doing what we think they should be doing. But this is a &#8230; <a title=\"Why Scapegoating Ruins Your Life &#038; What to do About it\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/ghostblogwriters.com\/why-scapegoating-ruins-your-life-what-to-do-about-it\/\" aria-label=\"More on Why Scapegoating Ruins Your Life &#038; What to do About it\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[439,508,519],"class_list":["post-14932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-leadership","tag-management"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Scapegoating Ruins Your Life &amp; What to do About it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ghostblogwriters.com\/why-scapegoating-ruins-your-life-what-to-do-about-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Scapegoating Ruins Your Life &amp; What to do About it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sometimes we\u2019re unhappy with the way our leaders are handling a situation. 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