by Charles Ray

Created on: March 21, 2009   Last Updated: January 16, 2012

The military culture holds the commander (the leader) responsible for everything his unit does or fails to do. On the surface this might seem harsh and unfair. If, however, we pause and think about it, it makes perfect sense.

The role of the leader is to guide the organization; to create conditions under which members of the organization can grow and develop and contribute to the accomplishment of the organization's goals. To the outside world, the leader IS the organization. When an organization is successful, the leadership is given credit. When an organization fails or makes a mistake, should not the leadership, then, shoulder the public blame?

Leadership taking the blame for staff errors does not have to mean that individual staff members are relieved of personal responsibility for their mistakes. It is in situations like this that truly effective leadership is apparent. The good leader will help subordinates identify and take corrective actions to get beyond mistakes. Rather than finger pointing or playing the blame game, using errors as an opportunity to learn and grow can further improve an organization's performance, build employee morale and loyalty, and enhance the public image of the organization.

President Obama's acceptance of responsibility for the failure of his staff to adequately vet some of his cabinet nominees is an example that supports this point. It is unrealistic to expect the President to be personally familiar with every detail of every nomination, given the other weighty issues that he must grapple with, but having him publicly accept the blame for these mistakes was reassuring, and an example of outstanding leadership. I have no doubt, though, that there were some intense discussions with the appropriate staff members to identify what went wrong and develop mechanisms to avoid future missteps.

A negative example is the case of the use of bailout money by AIG to pay retention bonuses to many of the same people who were responsible for the firm's misfortunes. AIG CEO Edward M. Liddy, brought in to sort out the mess that these same executives had created, appeared to be taking the view that, while the bonuses were a mistake, they were not his responsibility - they had been decided by someone else. He seemed to not understand, at first, that as the leader of AIG, it was seen as his responsibility to identify problems and take action to remedy them.

Like it or not, leadership IS to blame for staff errors. Either the erring staff member has not been given clear guidance or resources; or the leader made a mistake in selecting that particular employee for that specific job. Accepting blame is another way of accepting responsibility, and that is what leadership is all about. If we are to restore people's confidence in our institutions; public or private; more of our leaders must be willing to step up to the plate and say, "the buck stops with me."

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