If you’re a leader, you must take responsibility for what you can influence. To the extent that you don’t, you’re causing other people to fail.

One way you can tell if you’re failing as a leader is if you’re blaming other people under you for your failures. This will probably sound something like this: “If those people were more motivated, we’d be winning.” “My hands are tied because of the incompetent people I have to deal with.” “I’m not going to associate myself with the sales department because I don’t want to be held responsible for missing the goal.”

Your job as a leader is to create an environment where people succeed, whether it’s in your marriage or your team at work. If you allow mediocrity to live where you have influence, then you cannot blame the people you’ve put in place there. The only person you can blame is yourself for allowing it to continue. You are the one who causes change. If you’re not succeeding or progressing towards your desired goal, don’t blame your circumstances or those around you. Take responsibility by acknowledging you can cause change. If you don’t know what to do, you can go find someone who has more experience and get his/her knowledge. If your team is not trained, you can get them the training they need.

Your team is a reflection of how strong a leader you are. If you want to be stronger, you must follow those leaders who are stronger than you. You must also take ownership for your sphere of responsibility and not blame people or circumstances.