Get Rid of Your Poor Excuses Once and For All

Have you ever caught yourself making a statement like, “I don’t call on that customer because they only buy from big vendors.” Or maybe you’ve said, “I’m not going to bring that up in the meeting because she’ll just shoot it down again. She never appreciates my ideas.” Or maybe you’ve thought, “That guy needs to get his head examined. He said I’m not qualified for the job, I say he’s not qualified to manage me.” Have you ever thought these things? No? Maybe it’s just me. I know I have.

What is rationalizing?

Justifying our action or inaction to align with our own self-image will place responsibility or fault on someone else. This is called rationalizing. In laymen’s terms it’s called “making excuses.” And I’m here to admit it. I’m definitely guilty. Most of us don’t want to change our internal rationalizations, so we simply create a world consistent with them. In order to do this, we have to engage in the process of rationalizing the external world.

When I look back on my career I can see scenarios where I was unwilling to accept full responsibility and I placed blame on others. Since everyone knows you can’t control other people, it was a safe way for me to justify my actions. The discomfort we feel when we know we are doing or not doing something wrong is called cognitive dissonance. Rationalizing is our defense mechanism to remove that discomfort. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Why is rationalizing in sales or leadership a bad thing?

When we begin to make excuses or distort reality in our minds to protect our ego and our self-image, we are living out a false narrative. The more we allow these distortions to affect our minds, the easier it gets for us to stray further from our core values. This can become a slippery slope that leads to even more poor decisions. Neither sales professionals or leaders can produce successful careers if they are built upon generations of poor decisions.

How can we overcome rationalizing?

1st Step: Become Aware

This can be difficult to do if you have never attempted it because we all tend to make sense of our world by aligning the outside world and our actions with our internal beliefs. For example, if we believe in loyalty, reliability, and caring for others, then we will make sure that our actions in the world align with those values. If we do something in contrast to those values, we’ll be inclined to rationalize our actions (make excuses or justify them) in some distorted way so they still appear to align with our core values. Sometimes it takes a trusted friend, coach or mentor to help us separate truth from our distorted opinion.

“That guy is a real piece of work! He’s constantly criticizing other people behind their back.” (Hello pot, I’d like you to meet the kettle.)
“If I wasn’t so concerned with getting everyone else’s tasks done on time, I’d make it to my meetings on time.”
“I know there are more qualified candidates, but this person has known me for over 15 years. I know she will be loyal to this team.”

2nd Step: Prepare

Once you know you are rationalizing and making excuses to align your personal view of yourself with the world’s perception of you, then you’re ready for the next step… preparation. You can prepare yourself by improving your personal resources (skills, talents, tools, time, etc.)

Sales Example: If you rationalize the pricing discounts you consistently offer at the first sign of customer hesitancy, prepare for your future negotiations by defining your value proposition for each deal.
Leader Example: If you rationalize the avoidance of the tough conversation with your senior executive regarding increased bonus structure for your team, prepare for your next conversation with a detailed description of your bonus proposal and the reasons you support it.

We all have an internal image of ourselves and we know our personal core values. Anything we do that might cross the line with those core values will cause an internal discomfort (cognitive dissonance.) Rather than use rationalizing thoughts to justify your actions/inactions, reach for the tools and coaching you need to be successful.

To be totally transparent… I rationalized this week while working in Atlanta why it was best for me to not work on this blog post until Thursday. I see now it was just an excuse. I was rationalizing.

I’m in it with you… See you next week for Overcoming AGONIZING!

See you next week,
Russ