As a leader, you have an enormous amount of responsibility. You have responsibility for yourself, your people, your organization, and in some cases the public. Owning your mistakes is a critical part of being a good leader. In the book “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, authors Willink and Babin explain that “the leader must own everything in his or her world.” A good solid leader will take responsibility for everything, regardless if their “ego” feels the mistake was someone else’s. If a leader looks deep enough into themselves following a failure, they will see that somewhere along the line they failed as a leader to communicate effectively, recognize something required attention, or let their “ego” drive the direction of the decision. Leaders need to STOP making excuses when things don’t go as planned and STOP blaming failures on bad luck. A strong and capable leader will own their mistakes and learn from them. Exhibiting these behaviors as a leader will inevitably teach those around them what humility is and what owning up to your mistakes looks like.

Be a strong leader and take ownership of yourself and build a more capable team and successful organization.