Don’t Pass the Buck

A recent story from the New York Post with the headline “Pinch ‘Hit’ters!” caught my interest. A murder contract had been put out by Tan Youhu, a real estate developer. He wanted a rival developer, who had previously sued Mr. Youhu’s company over a building dispute, killed. Xi Guangan, a hit man, was hired to commit the murder. But Xi, in turn, hired another hit man, Mo Tianxiang, paying him half of what he (Xi) got. Mo then paid another guy, Yang Kangsheng, who then hired yet another hit man, Yang Guangsheng. A few months later, the second Yang hired Ling Xiansi. Each hit man was offered a lesser amount than his predecessor. Ling (the last assassin for hire on this list) didn’t do the killing but, instead, informed his target, the real estate developer, that there was a plot to kill him. The developer, seeing a cash opportunity for himself, schemed with Ling to fake his death so they could split the money for his supposed assassination.

All five hit men were eventually caught, each casting blame for the failure to kill the developer on their hires; however, they all got prison sentences—along with Tan. The intended victim survived unscathed and even made some money from the plot to kill him! Obviously, this is an exaggerated — if not humorous — example of passing the buck.

The idiom pass the buck has an interesting history since its inception in the early 1900s. It is known to have originated in poker games, typically seen in saloons and riverboats of the Old West. During card games, an object — usually, a knife with an antler handle — was placed in front of the person whose turn it was to deal the cards. The knife came to be known as a buck, since only male deer have antlers. So, when it was time for a new dealer, the buck was passed to the next player in line. If a player did not want to deal, he would place the buck in front of the player next to him, literally passing the buck.

The act of passing the buck can be portrayed to mean either relegating the responsibility for something to another, as in the “Pinch ‘Hit’ters” story or, more commonly, to shift blame to someone else to avoid responsibility for a perceived failure.

President Harry S. Truman famously popularized the phrase the buck stops here. He even had a sign on his desk with those words on it. His intended meaning was that he would take responsibility for decisions and that no excuses should be made by anyone else nor should blame be put on anyone else.

People pass the buck every day. Usually, it is used as a form of cover-up: “I didn’t know that it happened, but my chief of staff did, and he should have informed me! I’ll make sure I get to the bottom of this scandal and that people will pay!”

PASSING THE BUCK ILLUSTRATED

Someone didn’t do their job. One way to decipher the “Pinch ‘Hit’ters” story is to view it from the perspective of people passing their responsibilities on to others to accomplish a specific task. In this case, the job to kill the developer went from one hit man to another until the last one ratted on his predecessors. When a project, job, or assignment is passed on to others repeatedly, the proper end goal is often not met. Exact communication may have been lost, or the details may have become blurred as the assignment kept being translated by the next duty shirker. The urgency of a matter often does not resonate or is not properly conveyed to those carrying out the assignments.

The lesson in this story is that sometimes you cannot pass the buck if you want something done correctly and in a timely manner. Strong oversight may be needed, or perhaps the job needs to be done by the person who conceived it. This is where a solid system of management, leadership, and communication becomes important to assure things are being completed the way you want them to be done.

SHIFTING THE BLAME

Interestingly, some people will pass the buck ahead of anticipated trouble, as happened to me in second grade. Some fellow students and I were on a recess break, and one of the boys, Kerry, found a pile of smoldering ashes in the corner of the playground. Excitedly, he called us over to investigate.

One of the three boys who showed up said, “Hey, why don’t we try to get a fire going from these ashes!” So, we stripped small pieces of paper and dry leaves to get them to catch fire. Soon, a small spark caught, and in no time, we had a steady flame going. The bell rang after a few minutes, bringing our experiment to a halt. We stomped out the flames, and as we walked back into the classroom, we noticed Cindy Lou, a classmate, whispering into our teacher’s ear and staring at us while we made our way to our desks.

Mrs. Fletcher looked mad. After the second bell rang to start back with classes, she walked to the front of the room and said with a mighty, stern voice, “Which of you boys were playing with fire during recess?” My three friends and co-conspirators took furtive glances at one another but didn’t say anything. Suddenly, Kerry, the kid who found the smoldering ashes in the first place and who had definitely partaken in our fire party, raised his hand and said, “Mrs. Fletcher, I saw those boys playing with the fire,” and he pointed his fingers at each of us. He continued, “I told them not to do that, but they just wouldn’t listen to me!” Certainly, this is tattling, but it is also shifting blame — passing the buck — to avoid getting caught and diverting the attention and responsibility to others.

We got in trouble, and poor Kerry never did have any friends after that. Kerry didn’t want to be punished, but he had no problems turning on his friends to get them punished.

People in positions of power or in very public ranks, such as corporate leaders and politicians, often shift blame because their failures are likely to be noticed by others and can cause repercussions, such as a loss of status, rank, or even employment.

In a study published in PLOS ONE, researchers found that most people expect corporate leaders and politicians to shift blame, even though people don’t believe it is an appropriate action and don’t really like those who do pass the blame on to others. Does this mean politicians and high-visibility leaders get a free pass? Sometimes. Kerry passed the buck, and he got a free pass, because the rest of us followed a “boys’ creed” to never tattle on their friends. However, Kerry spent the rest of his boyhood alone. Although, he did grow up to be a local politician.

In my experience it is always a good idea to recognize your mistakes or wrongdoing and to fess up to it. Be proactive, and own it, then publicly apologize. We often see leaders hesitate to apologize, believing it is a sign of weakness; however, in a study published in the Journal of Business Ethics, researchers found that leaders who apologize can positively influence future perceptions of leaders — themselves and others. Furthermore, apologizing runs counter to the popular belief that blaming others reflects a sorry act of leadership and has beneficial effects in the long run.

The bottom line is don’t pass the buck. Own it!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Good leaders take responsibility for the good things that happen, as well as the bad. They don’t blame others and do not shift blame for failures and mistakes. By accepting responsibility, the leader will be viewed with respect and will be seen to have high integrity. Don’t pass the buck to others. Deal with your mistakes. Own your failures. And learn from them. When’s the last time you passed the buck?

Excerpted from Don’t Pick Up All the Dog Hairs by Ronald Dwinnells, MD, MBA, CPE.