Excuses: Leadership’s Silent Saboteur

The choice is yours.

"Is that a reason or an excuse?"

This question stopped me in my tracks.

How often do we “excuse” our way out of something to avoid responsibility and ownership?

I’m struck by the lengths people will go to rewrite the narrative—either to soothe their conscience or to appear more credible to others.

Andy Stanley unpacks this brilliantly in the episode, How Excuses Sabotage Your Leadership. He challenges the blurry line between reasons and excuses: “We confuse reasons with excuses. It's not always a reason—sometimes it's just an excuse.”

Sit with that for a minute. Let it sink in.

Now, let’s go deeper.

In Positive Intelligence, we talk about judgment—of ourselves, of others, of circumstances. Here's the connection: judgment often shows up as blame to keep us safe. It distances us from accountability. And when we default to blame, we latch onto a “reason” to justify what happened… when in fact, we may just be excusing ourselves from ownership.

Excuses are what we reach for when we abandon responsibility.

Here is an example: “I’m sorry I was late—there was traffic.”

Traffic is the reason.

But let’s be honest—that’s also the excuse.

 That’s me dodging ownership for not leaving earlier.

Great leadership doesn't hide behind circumstances. It steps into accountability.

Imagine instead: “I’m sorry I was late—I didn’t plan well and didn’t leave early enough.”That’s not about traffic. That’s about ownership.

A reason explains what happened. An excuse explains it away.

Leadership grows when we stop ducking for cover—and start standing in truth.

The cost?

We’ve all seen it: the leader who’s full of excuses slowly loses credibility.

Trust erodes.

Their word starts to carry less weight… until it doesn’t carry any at all.

Because without accountability, your foundation crumbles.