The Truth about Leadership Behavior and Who to "Blame" When Something Goes Wrong

I remember reading about Frank Blake when he was Home Depot's CEO. He routinely visited Home Depot stores around the country. I liked how he addressed the problems he encountered during his visits. His style and methods reminded me of something that I still believe is a key to good leadership.

Frank Blake is obviously a "systems thinker," and he led like one.

It's one thing to say you're a systems thinker; it's another thing, actually, to lead like one. During his visits, Frank would never make "store-related" comments. He chose to focus instead on the big picture (system issues).

This is a sage strategy for pastors and other church leaders to remember. It is common to react emotionally to a problem instead of asking, “How is our system broken, and what needs to be fixed?” In my experience, nearly 100% of the time, the problem is a systems issue, not a people issue. Either way, reacting emotionally seldom helps.

Over the years, I've been given feedback on how I react to problems. I don't seem to get "upset enough" or take action quickly enough. I'm too calm about the issue, waiting for the data to actually get in before making any judgments. I don't call the "person to blame" in my office, "have a word with them," or otherwise take my frustration out on them, or even fire the one to blame.

I've often said that when something in your organization isn't going the way you think it should, or something is going wrong, as the leader of the organization, you don't have to look far to find who to blame. All you have to do is walk to the nearest mirror to find the person to blame. Why? Because you are the problem. What do I mean? The bottom line is ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when something goes wrong, the senior leader is usually the one to blame. There's usually something you, as the senior leader, should be doing that you are not or something that you are doing that you shouldn't. You have to ask yourself the tricky question, "Am I willing to change myself to improve the organization's overall performance?"

As the senior leader, I like my job too much to fire the one to blame...the guy in the mirror.