[August 21, 2021] If there had to be one common characteristic of leadership, basic to great leaders, taking responsibility would be it. Only the very best leaders “own” what happens on their watch. Excuses for not getting things right are the sign of weakness and cowardliness. Every leader knows this.
“The buck stops here” is a phrase that was popularized by President Harry Truman, who kept a sign with that phrase on his desk at the White House.1 The phrase refers to the fact that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions. The meaning is clear, you are in charge, you are responsible, and there is no one else to blame for any failure.
Great leaders take this characteristic to a new level. They are responsible to:
- Establish an easy to understand Strategy and Vision and developmental process.
- Ensure successful employee, staff, team, and overall organizational performance.
- Take care of employees [training, health issues, managing expectations].
- Resource the organization properly, especially for the long term.
- Provide continuous guidance and information flow.
- Lead the organization in transitions.
- Identify and resolve difficult problems, in particular systemic problems.
- Handle major, unexpected events.
- Oversee the training, mentoring, and experience of other leaders.
- Encourage risk taking and freedom of ideas.
Authority to accomplish tasks and direct resources increases as leaders move up in an organization. The mark of the best senior leaders is one that pushes authority down to those in the organization, empowering others, while maintaining responsibility for their actions at the top.
There will always be “leaders” who claim that the complexity of their organizations and the list of missions and numbers of employees are so great, that it is impossible to be fully responsible. This attitude is defective and defeatist and is not an example of great leadership.
The best leaders seize responsibility when there are problems and things go wrong. These leaders do not blame others for mission failures; they don’t “pass the buck”. In addition, they do not look for credit when things go right, giving credit to other factors and to the employees in the organization.
The buck stops with the leader. It should be embraced.
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A great opportunity to study failed leadership, just so easy to see the the epic failure.
Good point. 😃
Know how and when to engage and make decisions are the hallmark of great leaders. Gen. Satterfield, I’m really enjoying these articles that deal directly with the character of leaders. Nowhere else am I seeing this. Keep up the great works and drive on. One other item, this who debacle of Joe Biden’s by withdrawing military forces from Afghanistan without any remorse or thinking he did wrong is a huge problem. Is he mentally ill? Deranged? What’s up with that?
SIEZE RESPONSIBILITY, the only way to success as a great person. Look around at those who want the trappings of great leaders and also ‘see’ that those same people fold like a house of cards when there is a big problem. They run away. That is why, IMHO, that Gen. Satterfield is calling such leaders the C word, cowards.
You got that right Dead Pool Guy. Excellent comment.
DPG, yep, thanks.
Excellent article, thanks Gen. Satterfield.
Gen. Satterfield wrote: There will always be “leaders” who claim that the complexity of their organizations and the list of missions and numbers of employees are so great, that it is impossible to be fully responsible. This attitude is defective and defeatist and is not an example of great leadership. This is something all leaders need to remember. 👍
Gen. Satterfield, I like your recent mini-series on “character” of leaders. There are many who just seem to have it. I’m not saying we are born with character but there are those who clearly have it and those who do not. Many in your forums have aptly pointed out that Joe Biden lacks the basic character to be a successful leader. It’s easy being a leader when things to well but hard when things go bad. That is always the test of character, “how we act when shit hits the fan.” Joe Biden failed the world and the stain will always be upon him.
Yes, and Gen. Satterfield pointed out in an earlier article, in Jan this year, that Joe Biden simply lacks the character to be President. He called it. What else is there to say? Keep up the great work, Gen. Satterfield.
Yeah, interesting that Gen. Satterfield was spot on. He also called it that Gen. Milley and ex-Gen. Austin also lacked that same ability. Biden sure knows how to hire the wrong people.
That is why I keep coming back here. Basic leadership principles never change. People never really change from those long ago. The hubris of many today is based on the fact that many think they are superior to others, that they are smarter and morally better than those before them. That is the ingredient for tyrants.
How come half the world sees this failure as a president as a coward and idiot, yet Pres Biden can’t see his own failure and believes he was the greatest leader ever? Hubris.
Historians, suck ups as they are, won’t be able to deny that President Joe Biden bears full responsibility for America’s humiliating retreat from Afghanistan, and our neglect of the tens of thousands who aided us and now face torture and death from the Taliban.
“The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way,” — Joe Biden. Yeah, cannot see his own nose either.
And yet, we have the President of the United States who is blaming Donald Trump, the Afghans, our military, his advisors, and probably his VP for his own personal failure to bring the troops home from Afghanistan and protect our allies. This man is a total, complete failure and moron. Yet, he was the most popular president ever…. yeah, right.
He was most popular with those new voting machines and boxes of ballots hidden under the tables. Ha Ha Ha.
Biden AND Harris — two of a kind. Both extreme failures.
People still LOVE them. Why? If a leader is a failure, then reject them.
Yeah, what’s up with that?