In my quest for self discovery and awareness, I have found myself reflecting on explanations offered for performance, especially the one that pertains to performance that is below expectations.

According to my cursory research;

“A ‘Reason’ is considered a fair and logical justification for not participating in something.
An ‘Excuse’ is a pretense or subterfuge that can logically be overcome.”

In a professional or business environment, actors often have to report their action or inaction and explain how they find themselves at certain stages of delivery.

From the quoted attempt at a distinction between a reason and an excuse, it becomes apparent that there is a thin line between them in that they are both used to explain something at a given time.

In my humble view, an excuse is mostly used to explain a failure to meet expectation ….and in desperation it is a last resort!

Whether the explanation offered by actors to those they are responsible to is plausible is a matter of fact. Excuses tend to attempt to shift the blame to someone or something else and absolve the proponents of responsibility. It is seen as a negative action that does very little to ameliorate a situation or provide solutions going forward. Decision makers will therefore frown at excuses and would rather consider reasons.

I have also found that excuses have categories which define how far they are from a reason, considering the fine line of distinction as alluded to above. There are what people refer to as “good excuses” and “bad excuses”, and the latter is least tolerated.

As actors, there is need for us to be aware of how our explanations are presented and received. The recognition that one is rendering a report in their capacity as a responsible officer is critical. We are responsible for the performance and the explanation for the status of the performance is supposed to be a trigger for commendation, constructive intervention or condemnation. Our explanations have a direct impact on the response we get from the person/s we report to.

As much as possible, focus on reasons and not excuses.

Let’s share!