I recently received negative feedback about certain members of my beloved team. But I didn’t pass the buck. Instead, I apologised and said that I take full responsibility for the mistakes made by my team members.

When EL was first created, it was just Turuu and I as driver and guide. It was easier then as it meant we could micro manage.
But. We wanted to put more back into Mongolia. And we’re proud of our commitment to making a positive difference through tourism in Mongolia. As part of our philosophy of making a difference, we don’t employ the best. Instead, we provide training and support to those that want the opportunity to aim to be the best they can be.

I believe that if there are situations whereby my team don’t perform the way that they usually do then instead of shouting or yelling, look at the reason. Why would they make mistakes? They are human. Maybe they were tired, were dealing with stress in their personal lives. Maybe there was a clash of personalities. Or, maybe our training or briefing was inadequate. If my team don’t perform the way I want them to, that’s my leadership mistake.

Yes, it is tempting to blame the team when things go wrong but that is a complete abdication of my role. It is actually much easier to do that though … to say it wasn’t my fault and to pass the buck. But then, I wouldn’t be in a position to learn from the experience and to work our how we or they or I could have handled the situation differently.

In the words of author Lissa Evans in her novel Old Baggage:

‘We shall pool our strengths and divide our weaknesses, and the whole shall be greater than the sum of the parts.’