APX-V-0018
“My team's about to take the blame for a call I let them make.”
There is a clean line and an easy line, and they have split. You can let the people under you absorb the hit and keep your record clean, or you can stand in front of it because that is what the chair you sit in is for. Authority that only flows down and never shields is not leadership — it is rank. Take the weight. That is the price of being above.
Your Practice
- Go up the chain before they do: 'This was my responsibility. The decision routed through me.'
- Name what you'd do differently — own the lesson, not just the blame.
- Tell your team privately what you said and why. They will lead the same way someday.
- Then, and only then, address the actual mistake — fix the system, not the scapegoat.
The Architects
“It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.”
— Grace Hopper, widely attributed to Grace Hopper