A Leadership Proverb

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What does it take to be a great leader? There are entire books written on the subject. There are seminars and conferences devoted to answering the question. Yet, to me there is one overarching
principle that points to a great leader and it's this...

Success Shared. Blame Beared.

The basic idea behind this leadership proverb is that to be an effective leader one must be willing to share credit with his/her team while at the same time take personal responsibility when things don't go according to plan. My feeling and experience is that leaders mastering this skill will find themselves surrounded by a team that is "sold out to their cause." In my opinion, this is a key factor in effective leadership.

Unfortunately, it seems that as leaders we mess this up far too often. It's so easy to want to pin the success of a specific outcome to our chest or place the blame on the team when something doesn't go right. If you find yourself in a leadership position, try to remember this little proverb. I think it will serve you well.