Why Blame Kills Performance (And Trust)

In aviation, sport, and leadership, few things erode trust faster than blame. In high-performance environments, where human error is inevitable, the way we respond matters more than the error itself. This article explores how blame destroys psychological safety, how Just Culture offers a better path, and why distinguishing between honest mistakes, risk-taking, and negligence is crucial for any high-performing team.

This was the Mansfield 10k back in September 2024. I was in decent shape physically (believe it or not) as I was in the depths of marathon training for an October race. I was a 1:05 pacer for Mansfield, so I just had to run consistent 6:30 kilometers throughout, to help guide anyone who was targeting that time. Sounds simple enough.

The first half of the race we got caught in quite a lot of rain. The pacer t-shirt was pretty skin-tight and uncomfortable in the rain, and as it was my first time pacing I wasn't used to running with the flag. Sounds like a lot of excuses right?! I blamed these reasons for not sticking to a consistent pace for the first few kilometers, whereas in reality it was me. I hadn't practiced the pace enough (I was used to running faster) so I couldn't get into the rhythm.

I took a condor moment, probably somewhere around when this photo was taken, and stopped with the blame. Yes there were factors making it harder, but i was there, in the moment, and just had to get it done. I managed to lock in the pace and came in with a time of 1:04:56. Four seconds fast, which in the world of pacing is pretty spot on!

Blame Has a Long Runway, But a Short Flight

Blame is a reflex. When something goes wrong, our instinct is to find who caused it and why. But in aviation, elite sport, and leadership environments, this instinct can be dangerous.

Blame might deliver temporary clarity or relief, but it’s a short-sighted fix. In reality, it creates a culture where people hide mistakes, hesitate to speak up, and disengage from improvement. That’s a recipe for stagnation, or worse, disaster.

From flight decks to boardrooms, the best teams understand that blame kills performance. And it kills trust.

Psychological Safety: The Invisible Force Behind Every High-Performing Team

Psychological safety is the shared belief that a team environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It’s the foundation for honesty, collaboration, and innovation.

When blame is common, psychological safety vanishes. Team members:

• Avoid speaking up when something seems wrong.

• Conceal errors rather than report them.

• Fear retribution instead of seeking feedback.

  
  

In aviation, this silence can lead to catastrophe. A junior first officer might fail to challenge a captain. A fatigued engineer might choose not to report an error. In sport, it might be the coach who ignores feedback or the athlete who doesn’t admit to overtraining until it’s too late.

Without psychological safety, systems fail silently - until they fail loudly.

Why People Make Mistakes (And Why We Should Care)

To improve performance, we must first accept a universal truth:

People will make mistakes. No matter how skilled, trained, or well-intentioned. I took a deeper dive into the why with this blog post.

But not all errors are equal. A high-performance culture must distinguish between:

1. Honest Mistakes

Errors made with good intent under normal conditions. These are opportunities for learning, not punishment.

2. Risky Behaviour

Deviations from standard procedures that may or may not lead to harm. These often result from pressures, shortcuts, or systemic issues.

3. Negligence or Reckless Behaviour

A conscious disregard for rules, safety, or responsibilities. This is where accountability, not blame, is appropriate.

When we lump these together under ‘human error’, we make two big mistakes:

• We discourage people from owning up to honest mistakes.

• We fail to hold truly negligent behaviour to account.

  
  

That’s not safety. That’s confusion.

What Happens When We Default to Blame?

In aviation history, some of the worst outcomes have come from environments where challenging authority or admitting error was culturally discouraged.

Take the infamous Tenerife disaster in 1977:

Two Boeing 747s collided on the runway in fog, killing 583 people. Investigations revealed that the captain of the departing aircraft began take-off without clearance, possibly believing he had it, and his co-pilot did not feel empowered to stop him.

The lesson? Not just a procedural failure, but cultural failure.

Blame would have targeted the individuals. But true learning came from improving crew resource management (CRM) and promoting assertiveness and clarity, especially in hierarchical settings.

The same logic applies in sport and leadership. A coach who punishes an athlete for an honest error discourages creativity. A manager who points fingers after a missed deadline reduces transparency.

In both, fear replaces performance.

Enter Just Culture: Accountability Without Unfair Punishment

Just Culture is a mindset, and increasingly, a structured framework that balances learning with accountability.

It doesn’t ignore mistakes. It doesn’t excuse negligence. But it asks:

What was the intent? What were the conditions? Was this a systems failure, or an individual one?

In a Just Culture:

• Honest mistakes are treated as learning opportunities.

• Risky behaviour is analysed in context and addressed fairly.

• Negligence is dealt with appropriately, without scapegoating.

  
  

Leaders in aviation, elite coaching, and executive teams are adopting Just Culture to build environments where performance thrives because people feel safe to try, fail, and improve.

How Leaders Can Create a No-Blame, High-Accountability Culture

Here are five steps leaders can take to reduce blame and improve performance:

1. Respond to errors with curiosity, not punishment

Ask: “What made sense to this person at the time?”

2. Encourage reporting without fear

Celebrate lessons learned from close calls or errors, not just wins.

3. Differentiate mistake types

Build processes that clearly distinguish between honest error, risky action, and reckless conduct.

4. Lead by example

Share your own mistakes. It normalises openness.

5. Coach, don’t control

Create space for growth by replacing blame with feedback and development.

The Cost of Blame Is Invisible, Until It Isn’t

When things go wrong, blaming someone feels productive. But it’s a cultural trap. You may fix one issue today while planting ten more for tomorrow.

In high-stakes fields, whether you’re flying aircraft, leading teams, or coaching athletes, the goal isn’t to avoid all mistakes. It’s to spot them early, learn from them fast, and create environments where people feel safe to perform at their best.

And that only happens when trust outweighs blame.