Responsibility

# Chapter 192

Take the blame 100% of the time. This is the Lincoln way to lead. Are you to blame? Wrong question. Whether you are to blame or not is not the point. The point is that the leader takes the blame 100% of the time. Of course that does not mean you and I did the wrong or failed to produce or made a mistake, but it means that we take responsibility for what happens. Did you get that, we take responsibility for what happens, we don’t pass along the fantasy that it is always someone else’s fault.

I don’t know about you but this is one of the Lincolnisms that has been most tardy in showing up in my life. Taking responsibility for everything is far too much like being married. But that is precisely the leadership intensity required to be the full adult stand up leader that you and I aspire to be in everyday life. While neither of us can actually be responsible for everything that happens, we can own it in such a manner that we willingly take the blame for all that comes along. Most often this type of leadership is heard among military type stories, where a leader will never let his men be judged or punished for their actions as a group. Instead the leader understands that part of the role of leadership is to provide a covering for followers, those who willingly place their lives into the leaders hands.

Its really wonderful to know that we had such a president in America’s past. More recent versions are of the teflon variety, the kind who take everyone’s credit and zero responsibility or blame.