by Dennis Aubuchon

Created on: December 10, 2011

Leadership is an important quality for an individual to have in business but does this mean that leadership should take the blame for staff errors.  The answers are both yes and no.  It is true that leadership has some responsibilities but so do the individuals who work for them.  We as individuals must take responsibility for our own decisions and the consequences of those decisions.  It would not be right for any leader in a business environment to take the blame for all staff errors.

Leadership should take responsibility for staff errors if they were had an impact on why the errors were made.  This could be for several reasons but primarily there are two.  The first is the training or the lack of it that is provided to individuals in the workplace to perform specific functions.  Often businesses focus on the profit not realizing that profit is connected to individuals being trained to perform the functions for which they were hired.  The second reason involves a lack of clear direction or guidelines provided to individuals to perform specific functions.  It is true in some cases it may be difficult to provide this direction but some general guidelines are appropriate. 

We as individuals should understand our responsibilities not only in the work environment but also in our daily lives.  In business it is important to understand the rules on how we are to perform our assigned responsibilities.  Management must and should provide clear direction for this to occur.  Understanding our functions and how they are to be accomplished is an important aspect.  When these elements are in place and we make a mistake it should not be the responsibility of the leadership of a company or organization to take the blame for the errors.  This would not only be wrong it would be unethical for leadership to take the blame and for us to allow them to do so.

Many times we hear individuals should take responsibility for our actions but that responsibility should only be when we are truly responsible for the errors and not someone else.  Taking responsibility is a character trait we as individuals must strive to have.  It develops us as individuals and makes us a better person.  This applies to individuals at all levels whether you are in management of a company or at the lowest point on the pay scale.  Taking responsibility is a characteristic which seems to be lacking not only in the private sector but in government as well.  This is not meant to imply that individuals taking responsibility for their actions does not exist in the private sector or government but that we never or seldom see examples in the media.

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