First To Take The Blame, Last To Take Credit

It was a line that started as a semi-ironic quip, but the more I said it, the more I noticed it was a defining characteristic of how I preferred to operate as a leader.

If the team screws up, it’s my fault. If they knock it out of the park, it’s theirs.

In the lead-up to becoming a people manager and then a leader, I’d worked for and observed a range of different leaders and leadership styles, and I noticed while some instilled a sense of fear of failure among their people, others actively shielded their teams from the fallout from setbacks or screw-ups — and these teams tended to think outside the box and were more comfortable with risk when it came to coming up with new ideas or ways of working.

They were also happier.

I also noticed that the latter, more nurturing leaders typically demonstrated more humility when it came to stepping back from the limelight and letting recognition and credit for company achievements flow to their team.

I don’t doubt that there will be organisations that have achieved great commercial success and where the leadership were self-important assholes who built and operated a culture of fear or blame.

But that seems like a pretty limited definition of success to me.