“We would have been done on time, except Tommy blew his estimates.” Everyone else is at fault. “I tried to update the plan, but Jimmy wouldn't return my phone call.” The Blamer is going to take everyone else down so that he or she doesn't have to be the one failing. The truth is, the Blamer is the one that failed.

As discussed, communication is a 50-50 road. The sender sends a message and the receiver receives it. The Blamers can easily be confused with the Egos or Hoarders, but they are subtler. Instead of only dealing with big project failures, this personality type tends to plan where to blame much further in advance. For instance, if they usually call you to discuss status, then suddenly ask you out of nowhere for an e-mail or written document, be warned: The Blamer may be setting you up for the fall. A quick forward of the e-mail to the boss, and you are toast.

This personality type generally gets found out quickly, though. They have burned enough team members in the past so that many will find excuses not to be on their project. That is one thing to remember throughout your project management career: Team members have their own lessons learned. Don't let their lesson be that they never want to work on a project with you again.