“It’s My Fault”: The Three Most Important Words in Leadership

Let me ask you something straight up: When something goes wrong in your business, where do you point the finger? If your first instinct is to look outward—blame your team, your boss, your company, or the market—you’re already losing.

Great leadership starts with one thing: ownership. Total, unapologetic, no-excuses ownership.

Now here’s the real kicker: your biggest obstacle isn’t your team, your competition, or even your lack of resources. It’s your ego. That little voice inside your head whispering, “It’s not your fault,” or worse, “You’re already doing everything right.” That voice is a liar—and it’s killing your growth.

Ego Is the Silent Killer of Progress

Ego is deceptive. It disguises itself as confidence, but it’s actually fear. Fear of being wrong. Fear of looking weak. Fear of feedback.

You think you’re protecting your image, your authority, your role as “the leader.” But in reality, you’re putting up walls that block the one thing you need to grow: feedback.

Let me make it crystal clear: Feedback is the breakfast of champions. And ego will starve you out.

The moment you stop listening, stop learning, stop being open to critique, you stop evolving. And in today’s world, if you’re not evolving, you’re falling behind.

The Three Most Important Words in Leadership are “It’s My Fault.” When you ingrain that fundamental level of ownership to your leadership approach you will have the foundation of greatness.

Ownership Is the Leadership Superpower

Now flip the script. Let’s talk ownership.

Ownership means you take full responsibility for everything in your world—your actions, your results, and yes, even your team’s failures. It doesn’t mean you micromanage or carry the entire weight yourself. It means you recognize that the buck stops with you.

Let’s say your team misses a deadline. Average leaders blame the team. Great leaders ask: “Did I give them a clear mission? Did I set the standard? Did I support them the way I should have?”

Ownership is not about guilt—it’s about control. When you own it, you control it. And when you control it, you can change it. That’s how winning is done.

The Truth About Micromanagement and Misalignment

Feeling micromanaged? Here’s a tough pill to swallow: maybe it’s not about your boss being a control freak. Maybe you’re not giving them enough confidence in your execution.

Ownership means over-communicating. It means pushing information up the chain, not waiting for someone to come down and fix it for you. If you don’t align with the vision, seek clarification. If you don’t have the tools, ask for them. If you’re out of sync, get in sync.

When your leaders trust you to deliver—without chasing, without checking in every five minutes—you earn the one thing every top performer craves: freedom.

But freedom isn’t free. It’s earned through results. And results come from relentless ownership.

Own Your Image. Own Your Outcome.

Want to know how your people see you as a leader? Don’t guess—ask. Not once a year during performance reviews. Right now. Today.

Pull aside a peer, a direct report, or your boss and ask them:

• “How can I lead better?”
• “What’s one thing I could do differently to support the team?”
• Then—and this is critical—shut up and listen.

Don’t defend. Don’t explain. Don’t justify. Just listen.

Because here’s the truth: the perception of your leadership is your leadership. If you think you’re clear but your team is confused, you’re not clear. If you think you’re empowering but they feel micromanaged, you’re not empowering. That’s the hard truth of self-awareness.

Leadership isn’t about how you feel you’re doing. It’s about the results you’re getting—and the relationships you’re building to get them.

The Fastest Way to Earn Respect

Respect doesn’t come from a title or a corner office. It comes from one thing: humility in action.

When you own mistakes publicly, when you take feedback without flinching, when you make changes based on what your team tells you—they respect that. Because it shows strength. It shows security. It shows real leadership.

You want loyalty? Be the leader who owns problems, fixes them, and grows in front of their team.

Extreme Ownership = Extreme Results

If you’re serious about next-level performance, you can’t dabble in ownership. You’ve got to go all in.

That means:

• No excuses.
• No blame.
• No hiding behind “That’s not my job.”

It means you control what you can, influence what you can’t, and never wait to be rescued.

Start by owning your communication. Is your vision crystal clear? Do people know what success looks like? If they don’t, that’s on you.

Own your follow-up. Are you holding people accountable in a way that’s consistent and fair? Are you coaching them to win, or just correcting them when they lose?

Own your example. Are you living the standards you expect from others? People won’t rise to what you say. They rise to what you do.

Final Thought: Own Everything

Every great leader I’ve worked with or studied has one thing in common: they never run from responsibility.

When something breaks, they fix it. When results slip, they lean in. When the pressure’s on, they don’t point fingers—they point the mirror at themselves and ask:

“What do I need to change?”

And that mindset? It’s unstoppable.

So, here’s your call to action:

This week, find one thing you’ve been blaming on others—your team, your boss, your company. Flip the script. Ask yourself: What can I do to take ownership of this and improve it right now?

Then do it. No fanfare. No waiting. Just action.

Because the moment you shift from ego to ownership, everything changes—your team, your culture, your results, your future.

Game on.