Because we are afraid.

Fear follows close behind our errors and failures – It’s the reason we are scared to come clean.

Fear of –

• Losing face – That others would think us incompetent or not good enough.
• Losing friends or customers.
• Losing our place in people’s good books or in the case of companies, precious market share.

When we fear something, we focus on ourselves and we turn a blind eye to the needs of others. And fear has the unfortunate tendency of increasing our incompetence. It prevents us from achieving what we are capable of. Because we are too busy justifying ourselves rather than looking straight in the mirror and correcting ourselves.

For more on the Cover-up series, search my blog for the key word Cover-ups. Next in the series is about how Cover-ups breed Incompetence.