True leaders take the blame; the team always gets the fame

Put your team first when it comes to fame

Leadership is anything but an ego game.

So when it comes to blame and fame and the distribution of that between leader and team, the first thing to consider is that the people who make things happen is the team. They do the work, they work with the leaders, they get the things done through the work that they do and this is ultimately how results are being achieved.

The leader is not doing the job, that is done by the team.

And that means when things go well, when big results are being made, ultimately it is the team who should be carrying the fame.

It is also back to what I have talked about before about the motivational factors and the research you can read about that: Motivation comes of course partly from a decent pay, but it comes even more from the feeling of belonging to something, being part of achieving something.

And that is where the fame that you can get from having contributed to making great results is quiet important also for motivational reasons.

The other part – about the blame – is the less nice side of it. There we need to go back to this very fundamental thing that at the end of the day, leaders are ultimately responsible.

It begins and ends with the leader

And that means if something goes wrong, when things don’t work, when results are not being made, there is only place to look ultimately, and that is at the leader. Because the leader is ultimately responsible for making sure that the whole team is orchestrated in the right way.

So at the end of the day, if you are a true leader, you do take the blame when and if needed – hopefully not. And the team always gets the fame when things go well.