Give credit, take responsibility

Two words are very important as a leader: “We” and “I”.

When you’re giving positive updates or bragging, use “We”. When you’re giving bad news or identifying issues, use “I”.

There will be exceptions, but that should be your default approach to giving credit and taking responsibility.

You will resist this. You probably have objections. Set them aside — trust me.

The main reason is that, for any important project, your relationship with your team is almost certainly more important than any one project or outcome. By using “We” and “I” well, you will gain the trust of your team and of your client, customer, user, or whoever you are serving.

Your team will know who actually created those updates, shipped the new version, or completed the project. Even if it was you who did that, give credit to the team. They need to know that everything that happens in the project is a group effort.

One of the sacrifices you make as a leader is that you will take responsibility when things don’t go optimally, at least externally. Whoever you are serving doesn’t need to know specifically who screwed up. You know that, the person who screwed up knows that.

But your team will know why things went badly and they will appreciate not being thrown under the bus. Again, your relationship with the team is paramount as the team is what ultimately executes.