One of the most important aspects of leadership is responsibility towards work and the people he/she is leading. Particularly when it comes to mistakes. As a leader, when things go wrong in your team what happens? Do you play the blame game? Or do you suck it up and focus on fixing the problem?
It’s tempting, isn’t it? To take credit when things go well, and deflect blame when they don’t? It’s a natural human response, after all. It's good to look good. However, in a world of leadership where the traits of accountability and personal responsibility are so highly regarded, you'd make a darn good leader if you learn to avoid the temptation to blame others or hoard credit.
The struggle with blame shifting in a lot of people stems from either an overabundance of pride deep within or a lack of courage to stand up for others. In an organization, a leader's excuses, justifications and rationalizations will never serve as an adequate substitute for courage and humility. This is because the people being led looks up to such a leader for inspiration and correction.
Also, it's pretty obvious that people who struggle with the blame game do not have a deeper understanding of what mistakes are supposed to mean. Throughout my years in the formal education systems, mistakes have been stigmatized to mean the total failure and good-for-nothingness of an individual. With this misconception in mind, a lot of people grow up and graduate to think mistakes are the most terrible thing to let happen, and leaders who are like that do not hesitate to throw people under the bus when they make mistakes.
So you want to be better at leading?
You'd have to learn to accommodate and be responsible for a lot of things.
Disciplined leaders hold themselves responsible for whatever happens on their watch. To them, this level of responsibility simply comes with the territory, and leaders who cannot accept this probably do not deserve to lead. Disciplined leaders understand that people make mistakes – I know I do. Hence, they see mistakes as a chance for opportunity, growth and improvement, not an opportunity to blame shift.
Leaders who would encourage creativity rather than instil fear in the minds of the people they lead would be lenient with mistakes. They would readily claim responsibility for the failure of the team than take credit for success. Just like the famous quote says:
Pass on the credit, take the blames.
They understand that in most cases, failures are often the result of bad leadership, and passing the blame onto those beneath them is not only misplaced and unnecessary but also discouraging. So, they suck it up.
A good leader also understands that the success of his team is not just about him alone. Rather, it is wholly based on the performance of every active team member.
Consequently, he/she is more than willing to let others in on the glory as well. They give recommendations and honorary remarks whenever they can. Leaders understand that assuming the credit for one's self is not only selfish but alienating and wreaks of insecurity.
So, you see, being a good leader is pretty easy to become. However, as is with most important things in life, it cannot happen in a single day. To be great at it, we have to learn to pull the thumb as first instinct instead of aiming fingers each time there is a problem. We want to learn how to inspire and encourage people who have made mistakes to work hard at being better rather than throw them under the bus. We also want to be perceptive and honest rather than being brute.
With that, one can easily resolve that working on being great at leading isn't just for the sake of leading. It's much more about living. In truth, being a good leader is really just learning to be a decent human being. Lead better, and the universe would ask nothing more of you.
Thanks for reading