Over the last year, I’ve had the privilege of working with many leaders. One of them is Dr. Kim. Something he does has had a great impact on me and I want to share it with you today. Over and over again, I’ve seen him come into a situation where service was delayed to one our patrons and say, “I’m sorry we’ve kept you waiting. It’s all my fault.” And then he will move on to take care of the situation. Always, it’s not even his fault but the fault of the subordinate serving the patron at the time. But he comes in, takes the blame, and solves the problem.
He epitomizes the truth that :
“Good Leaders take the blame and pass the Credit”
True leaders take responsibility. They don’t lay blames.
To paint a clearer picture, Dr. Kim does this in front of a guest, a client, a patron–someone who is not part of the team. The idea is not that a good boss should take responsibility for mistakes that their subordinates make when they are talking in private. That will be disastrous because many employees will miss the opportunity to receive formative and summative feedback to continue to learn and grow.
How can all of us take responsibility even when we don’t have a leadership position?
If you do anything wrong, admit it! Say, “It’s all my fault.” Don’t explain it away, don’t give any excuses. Simply apologize for it genuinely and take full responsibility for correcting.
Remember to say, “I’m sorry, it’s all my fault.”
I think it may be a good idea to say this out loud many times and practice it. Why? Because some of us have never apologized for anything. A few of us have but we find it extremely difficult for words of apology to come out of our mouths. By repeating that phrase over and over again, it will roll off your tongue easily when you actually need to use it.
“I’m sorry, it’s all my fault.”
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