There’s a sentence I hear more often than I used to from my clients.
“If my team just pushed a little harder, we’d be fine.”
It’s usually followed by a qualifier.
“I probably shouldn’t say that out loud.”
“I know I’m not being fair here.”
I want to be careful with this one, because my clients aren’t cynical jerks. They’re not looking for someone to blame.
They’re cornered.
They’ve already absorbed everything they can absorb. Stayed later. Taken more on. Stopped asking for help because there’s no one to ask.
And when the demands won’t stop, the pressure has to go somewhere.
So, inevitably, their attention turns outward. Suddenly there’s a list.
So-and-so isn’t stepping up. So-and-so dropped that. So-and-so needs more direction than they should at this level.
I sat with a client I’ve worked with for years while he went through his version of that list.
When he finished, I said: “You know the next name on that list is going to be mine.”
He looked shocked—even reproachful: “I’d never say that about you.”
And I said, “Why not? Everyone else is on it.”
He laughed, then got quiet.
Because the list wasn’t a judgment about his people. It was a symptom.
Blame is what pressure does when it has nowhere left to go. Not always, but often.
When you’re inside the pressure cooker, it can be hard to see that the team—like you—is doing everything they can.
And that they’re absorbing the same conditions you are, only with less information and less control.
So when the list shows up—and it will—check your perspective:
What’s changed? Them? Or the conditions they’re working in?
Nine times out of 10, it’s the conditions.
If you’ve got a list right now—is it really about them?