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Passing the Buck or Shifting the Monkey

Many of you may be familiar with the phrase pass the buck. If you are unfamiliar, in essence it means to shift blame or responsibility to someone else. There is another phrase, Shift the Monkey, popularized by Todd Whitaker that means to shift burdens to those that should carry them.

The key distinction is that with passing the buck, you take your responsibilities and faults and try to force them on someone else. When shifting monkeys, you give the burdens back to the rightful owner and quit carrying the burdens of others.

As an administrator, I need to get better at shifting monkeys to their rightful owner.  For various reasons, I don't often do that.  One reason is that I find it much easier to do it myself. I know that there are few others that will do it exactly the way I would, so I prefer to take care of it on my own. Problem is that my plate can get pretty full sometimes and I need to pass off some of those burdens. What this means for me is that I have to accept how others accomplish the task (within limits of course).

What is really irritating is when I do shift a monkey back to the rightful owner, they try to pass the blame off on someone else.  I know I have been guilty of this many times in my life and I know it is a natural reaction for many people.  We have to break that cycle.  

When your boss/leader/mentor passes a problem to you you need to first ask yourself, "Is this really my burden or does it belong to another person?"  Most of the time your boss would not pass it to you if it belonged to someone else.  Once you have determined ownership the next step is your reaction. Do you accept it or try to blame someone else?

My goal is to be the best I can be at my job.  I am far from perfect and do not want that to be an excuse.  Instead I want it to be my motivation.  My job is to make those around me the best that they can be.  I know that it takes hard work on my part.  It will take hard work from everyone around me.  I cannot make excuses, I will take responsibility for my actions.  I will pass burdens off to those that should carry them so I can better work with those that need and desire help moving towards their goals.  


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