Leaders must take Responsibility

There were times in the early history of Islam where the Prophet, took decisions based on his companions’ opinion. One such was when he wanted to fight a particular battle in Medina but his companions, collectively known as the Sahabah wanted to fight it in Uhud. The battle was lost, but the Prophet never even once told the Sahabah that had they taken his advice and fought in Medina, they would have won and not got into the mess they were in. He simply remained silent and took the responsibility.

Leaders sadly tend to pass the blame when they fail, very often to subordinates. This does not change the result but instead makes subordinates lose confidence in their leadership and brings about a reluctance among them to make suggestions in the future for fear of criticism. In other words, passing blame on others without taking responsibility ourselves reflects a lack of confidence in ourselves and only results in the people we deal with losing confidence in us.