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When one assumes a leadership position, he or she assumes all the responsibility that goes along with it. One of the responsibilities of leadership is to prevent errors from happening in the first place. If errors occur, it is not only the leader's responsibility but her obligation to step up to the plate and take ownership of any problems or issues created by the error.

Part of the role of an effective leader is to train her staff to avoid making errors. While errors are inevitable, proper training of staff should serve to reduce their numbers, therefore preventing the leader from finding herself in the position to need to take the blame. Therefore, the first question an effective leader should ask herself when faced with an error is why the staff member didn't know better in the first place. Nine times out of ten, the answer will be that they were simply not properly trained. A well-trained staff is not only one that will produce fewer errors, but will also be more productive overall. The wise leader constantly monitors the training needs of her staff and finds a way to provide any additional training that is necessary to help her staff function at it's best.

Effective leaders also empower their staff members to resolve errors as they arise. If she provides her staff with the proper training and then allows them the flexibility to handle and resolve errors, many of them can be corrected before ever becoming problems or issues that have to land on the leader's desk. Empowerment gives staff members a sense of ownership of what they are doing and will lead to an overall more productive and content staff as well. If the staff doesn't feel they have to ask permission for every move they make, they will be able to more effectively deal with minor problems which in turn will give the leader more time to focus on her big-picture responsibilities.

Another function of the effective leader is to maintain proper communication with her staff. Through proper and consistent communication between staff members and the leader, many errors can be avoided or addressed before they become major problems. No leader should ever be blind-sided by an error or problem if they have maintained good communication with their staff. If a leader is faced with an error or problem that seems to arise out of the blue, she should ask herself why she didn't know about it sooner. Odds are the answer will be ineffective communication. If ineffective communication is found to be the case, the leader should examine the current channels of communication available to the staff. Does communication flow both ways? Do staff members feel comfortable communicating upward? Do they have many different ways to communicate with each other and with the leader? If the answer to any of those questions is "no" then there is a major communication problem which needs to be addressed and resolved.

By assuming responsibility for all aspects of training, empowering and communicating with her staff, the effective leader will find herself in a position of having to explain away errors much less often. She will instead find herself with a smoothly flowing operation with competent, confident staff members who can either prevent or effectively handle any errors which may arise. At the very least she will be aware of them before receiving a surprise call from her irate boss demanding an explanation. Sometimes being able to say, "Yes, I am aware of the issue and these are the steps I am taking to resolve it," is a good way to avoid the issue of blame altogether.

Learn more about this author, Bruce W. Coffman.
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