One thing I have often struggled with is getting approval for things.
At an old job, a colleague of mine coined a phrase known as “confirmation-ish.” This means, the person is saying yes to something or agreeing to something, but with a number of terms that render their “yes” meaningless.
For example, have you ever asked someone for approval to move forward? The response is not often “Yes.”
“Assuming we do X and assuming Y, I think we should be good. Quick question about this approval. . .” is often the type of response you receive.
Culture of blaming
The issue is often that the people live in a culture where failure is punished and people are blamed solely for issues that occur, when the reality is never that cut and dry.
In a world where employers will swiftly lay many off or look for a scapegoat when something goes wrong, why would you want to readily provide them the ammunition?
Remove the -ish
The only way to remove the “-ish” is to take and show accountability yourself.
If you can show people that you are ready to yes to things and, importantly, that you will live and die by your “yes”s, then you can make change with those around you.
Problems are never so simple that one person caused it all. The same is true of successes!