I am walking through the airport a few days ago, and overhear a conversation among several employees griping about something. Their conversation was centered around "I can't believe THEY decided to make that decision.... they are asking us to show up early but they don't understand. I can't wait to tell them what I think. Maybe then they will give us a chance to succeed...." Who is they?

You hear it all the time.... "they" don't want me to get a promotion. "they're" the reason the project is failing. It would have worked if "they" wouldn't have messed things up. It wasn't my fault- "they" were supposed to take care of that. "They" can figure it out because I don't care anymore.

As leaders, many times, we are the "they." And we need to constantly be aware that the idea of "we" and "me" instead of "they" should be our compass. Passing the buck to an unknown entity like "they" just causes confusion and frustration. It's easy to put all the blame on "them" because "they" don't have a name or face or personal connection. The onus is on US, WE and ME, not THEM or THEY, whoever those folks might be.....

So next time you have the urge to say "they", change it to "us." All of the sudden, the rules change.