by Steve Adubato, PhD

When will corporate executives learn that the blame game is a terrible communication strategy? It never works. It’s a bust. Even if you have a legitimate point to make or can partially back up your claim that someone else is at fault when things go wrong, there is always enough “blame to go around.”

But in the case of the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, that really isn’t the issue, is it? Last week in this column I blasted BP, saying that their brand reputation was just about shot after a long history of environmental accidents and mishaps. Today’s message is very different, particularly after listening to the testimony of BP America chairman Lamar McKay, Transocean CEO Steven Newman and Tim Probert, president of Halliburton, before a Senate Environment Committee hearing as they pathetically pointed the finger at each other.

BP was the principal developer for this project, essentially leasing the land, equipment and overseeing and directing the drilling. Transocean was the contractor who leased the deep-water drilling rig to BP. And Halliburton Energy Services provided the cement that was supposed to keep gas from escaping up the well pipe to the surface.

When pressed in Washington, BP boss Lamar McKay said it was Transocean’s fault that things went terribly wrong when a safety seal failed. McKay’s argument was that since Transocean owned the rig, they were of course to blame. Not so, said Transocean boss Steven Newman, arguing that when it comes to drilling projects, they “begin and end” with the operator. In this case, BP. So BP blames Transocean, Transocean blames BP, while both of them imply that somehow Halliburton is to blame because there were problems with the company’s cement surrounding the rig.

When will people in business finally get the message that when it comes to the communication game, blaming never works? Most people are looking for leaders to step up and lead. To take responsibility, even if a leader believes that someone else is responsible for a bad outcome. Great leaders take responsibility for the part of the problem that they contributed to. That’s it.

So, if BP leased the oil rigging equipment from Transocean, then BP must take responsibility (or blame) for not monitoring or overseeing that leasing in a more responsible fashion. If there was a problem Halliburton’s cement, then whoever brought in Halliburton has to take some responsibility (or yes, blame) for that decision.

Think about this. If you bring in a general contractor to build an addition on your home, and they subcontract the electrical work to ABC Electrical Company, what happens if there is faulty wiring that causes a fire? As the general contractor, YOU are responsible to the owner for the decision to bring in an electrician who screwed up. The owner shouldn’t be communicating with the subcontractor, but rather with the person they hired—YOU, the GC.

When it comes to communication and leadership , professionals should spend less time trying to figure out who they can point the finger at and more time looking in the mirror and asking this question; “What should I or could I have done to have decreased the odds that something might go wrong?” Or, “What was I responsible for that didn’t turn out right?” Nobody likes a whiner. Nobody wants to hear excuses. And nobody wants to hear you blame anyone else. It’s a lesson that we as parents teach our kids every day. So one wonders when “leaders” in corporate America are going to finally learn that lesson themselves.