Falling on a Sword

Lately, I've heard stories about people within our organization and outside of it that have fallen on swords in different ways. There are those that fall on the sword for others and those that only fall on the sword for themselves. I do believe there is a time and a place for both, but I also know that there is a sort of camaraderie that comes with the way we work today.

For me, falling on a sword for my team, for my loved ones, and for my friends is a no brainer. If they didn't kill someone, break the law, or make a life-ruining mistake, I don't have a problem seeing what happened through the eyes of the mistake maker. A lot of that is due to my entrepreneurial mindset. "If you're not failing, you're not doing it right." But I think there's something that leaders who fall on the sword for their team have that leaders who only fess up when the mistake is so obviously their fault don't.

Sure, there are firable offenses that may not be worth falling on a sword for if you didn't participate, but there are times, in work and in life, where falling on a sword and taking the punches when it wasn't your fault is tactful and worth it. It doesn't always (or ever) feel good to be the person to take responsibility for a teammate that made a mistake or didn't finish a project on time. But we all have off days. We have days where we zone out in an important meeting thinking about stuff at home. We have days where we take notes and can't keep up with every detail. We have days where we're running late and realize our pants have been on backward since 8AM.

In these moments, when it is difficult for others to have compassion it's doubly important that we give it to our team members, our family, and our friends. There isn't always someone on our side to help us get through the day or to help us through tough times at work or at home, but if we want our teams to be there through thick and thin we have to realize that we're all human. At the end of the day, if no one died, the business kept spinning, and the world didn't end, falling on the sword for someone else was worth it.

You build loyal, die-hard employees that come to work and know you have their back. And those are the best kind.