APX-V-0034
“I can save myself by blaming my team, and no one would stop me.”
The escape hatch is open: name a subordinate, let them absorb the fall, walk away clean. No one would even blame you for it. That is precisely the test. The strong stand between the storm and the people beneath them — a leader who feeds his own to survive isn't a leader, he's a predator with a title. Take the hit. That's what the position is for.
Your Practice
- Name the temptation plainly: you can survive by sacrificing someone weaker. Look at it directly.
- Refuse it. Take responsibility for the call up the chain, where it belongs.
- Protect the team from the fallout you can absorb. That's the literal job of standing above them.
- If the team genuinely erred, correct it privately and own it publicly. Shield first, teach second.
The Architects
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
— Frederick Douglass, 'West India Emancipation' speech, Canandaigua, New York, August 3, 1857