Its 0630 and I’m in full service dress blues. I’ve been told that I must report to the Wing Deputy Commander to explain the actions of a Communication Security (COMSEC) incident that has occurred in my section. I am in charge of the account but did not personally have anything to do with the incident. Do I shift blame to the Airman that committed the incident? What would you do in this situation? In the next few pages, I hope to explain to you the importance of good leaders giving honor to their subordinates when they succeed and taking the blame when they fail. 2. How easy is it to take responsibility for your subordinates work? Now think, how easy is it to take the blame for your subordinate’s failure? As a leader, we must give subordinates the honor when they succeed and be ready to accept the responsibility of our subordinate’s actions when they fail. In order for me to encourage you to practice this, you first need to understand how both of these actions can benefit the team. First, we’ll look at the advantages of giving honor to our subordinates when they succeed, then we’ll look at some advantages in taking the blame for our subordinates. 3. What are the advantages of praising our subordinates? What type of qualities should a leader have? These are the questions you should ask yourself. Be modest and humble, and praise when praise is due. According to an article in the Marine Corps Gazette, Lord or Leader Modesty Will Force Introspection, “Leaders are modest; lords are not. A modest person is a person who is constantly introspective and places his or her position and accomplishments into proper perspective.” (Lyman: 49) A good example of modesty and honoring subordinates when they succeed happened to myself in 1998. I was in charge of the largest COMSEC account on the base. Our section went through a command COMSEC inspection and r...
