How’s your leadership processing the blame that is sure to follow any decision or direction that you set? If you are composed of the same emotional tissue as me, you tend to loath it or deflect it instead of owning it. Here are a few quotes to challenge our thinking:

  1. “Guys want their coaches to be authentic.” (Mark Schlereth after Super Bowl LV)
  2. “People would rather follow a leader who is always real than a leader who is always right.” (Craig Groeschel)
  3. “To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.” (Hubert Humphrey)
  4. “If you can’t stand the heat, you’d better get out of the kitchen.” (Harry S. Truman)
  5. “The reason people blame things on the previous generation is that there’s only one other choice.” (Doug Larson)
  6. “A strong leader takes blame and gives credit. A weak leader gives blame and takes credit.” (John Wooden)
  7. “The urge to blame is based…on the fear of being blamed.” (Don Stone)
  8. “Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.” (George Washington Carver)
  9. “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” (Benjamin Franklin)
  10. “Don’t find fault; find a remedy.” (Henry Ford)
  11. “Blaming others is nothing more than excusing yourself.” (Robin Sharma)
  12. “George Washington is the only president who didn’t blame the previous administration for his troubles.” (Unknown)
  13. “If you don’t do your part, don’t blame God.” (Billy Sunday)
  14. “Blame allows us to smuggle our issues into our future.” (Andy Stanley)
  15. “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit. (Arnold Glasgow)
  16. “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
  17. “Responsibility equals accountability equals ownership. And a sense of ownership is the most powerful weapon a team or organization can have.” (Pat Summitt)
  18. “Pastoring (and any other leader) is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb. ” (Ray Ortlund)
  19. And the funniest/most convicting…”People alway want someone to blame…don’t THEY?” (Eileen Wilkes)

Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash