Do You Play The Victim Card?

 John Ruh  Leadership


I was influenced by the power of vision at an early age (www.johnruh.com/im-living-proof/). This means that I believe we are each responsible for our own outcome in life. It has served me well both personally and professionally.

Being a leader and reaching your vision requires positive thinking (which will not only keep you going but will boost employee morale), flexibility (you often have to adjust your leadership style to relate to your employees) and it means taking complete accountability for your actions and circumstances. Recently some clients and I have been discussing what we call “the victim card.” This means we blame a person or circumstances for our trials rather than taking ownership of them. And when the victim card is played it sabotages success, creates undue misery and stress and focuses us on things that we have no control over. It can destroy employee morale. I have said to more than one person recently, let’s stop playing victim card and take responsibility for the challenges we face in life.

Why we all fall into this trap at times.
Unless you are totally conscious there are times when out of confusion, ignorance or denial, you may blame a person or circumstance for your present situation. This is human nature. Unfortunately, some people never get beyond it and consistently stay in a “victim” position which can sabotage their own potential success. If you have a lot of people like this that work for you, you face some major challenges.

What to do about it

  1. Acknowledge it.
  2. Look within yourself or work with others to determine if your leadership style is encouraging people to play “victim.”
  3. Encourage an environment of positive thinking.
  4. Make taking responsibility, accountability and commitment (being your word) part of your culture.
  5. Integrate steps 3-4 into your process of Finding, Focusing and Supporting the right people.

Support you might consider:
Call us for a one-time, one-hour facilitated discussion with you and your team on how to deal with this issue effectively so your company’s success is not sabotaged.

Other relevant leadership articles: