I recently watched a MasterClass by President George W. Bush, and that one line hit me. Gedebukbedepak!
That’s leadership, right there!
The quiet, heavy responsibility of saying, “If things go wrong, it stops with me.”
In the workplace, we often love saying “we” when things go well.
“We won the client!”
“We exceeded the target!”
“We built a great team!”
But when things go south? Suddenly it’s…
“They missed the deadline!”
“She didn’t follow through!”
“He wasn’t ready!”
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but true leadership is the opposite.
You share the spotlight, but shoulder the consequences.
You celebrate the team’s wins, but own the team’s mistakes.
It means eating humble pie even when the fault wasn’t entirely yours.
It means protecting your people, while guiding them to do better next time.
We take credit. I take blame.
Period.
