There are two habits every wise leader will embrace like a child clings to his two favorite toys. But this will not be easy.

These habits are frequently arch enemies and will run in opposite directions. They will scream, kick, and claw to go different ways and it’s always more comfortable to keep one and let the other one go. But you must have both if you want to be an effective leader.

The first principle better known than easy to apply is simple this: take responsibility. More specifically:

1. The wise leader takes full responsibility for anything that goes wrong under his leadership.

This is easy to agree with until one Sunday morning you are leading worship and at the most reverent moment the mikes screech like they were invented to drive canines crazy followed by an earth-quivering “thump!” as if thunder clapped in the church attic. As the face of the sound man appears in your mind, some evil word creates itself in the back recesses of your mind. Suddenly taking full responsibility means chewing out the sound guy instead of taking the blame and preventing the problem from happening again. Technically, one could argue that the screech was Mr. Sound Guy's fault, but the responsibility falls squarely on you the worship leader. Why? Because you're the leader. With the privilege of leading comes full responsibility and blame for anything that goes wrong that’s under your care.

You’re a college pastor and every Friday night collegians use the gym to play basketball. One night you can’t make it, so you pass the key off to a trusted leader and tell him seventy times seven to make sure he locks up the building after the night is over. Next Sunday one of the elders complains to you that the lights were left on, the doors open, and a bear got in and emptied the garbage cans all over the gym floor. Temptation shows up and you want to say, “My irresponsible college leader didn’t listen to a word I said even though I told him seventy times seven times to lock things up.” If you do, the elder can rightly reply, “And what kind of responsible college pastor would enlist an irresponsible college leader?”

To accuse the subordinate takes the blame off you the leader and drops it on the follower. It feels good at first and makes it easier to face people who question what went wrong. But when the smoke has cleared, you've indrectly told the world, “I like to lead but I’m not willing to take full responsibility for anything that goes wrong under my leadership.” If an army general tried this he’d be court-martialed. No matter what happens to his platoon—good or bad—he gets the blame when something goes wrong.

I know that many times it’s impossible to prevent a short circuit. But that’s okay. That’s part of being a leader and it’s a risk worth taking. When we as leaders shift the blame to our subordinates, several problems occur:

First, we discourage the loyalty of our followers. The leader who shows greater loyalty to covering his own tail than to making the organization or ministry move forward, will soon lose the loyalty of his followers. From your example they will soon learn to cover only for themselves and suddenly the organization has turned into a motley crew of freelancers who care only for protecting their reputation. Many will do it out of fear of getting embarrassed a second time. The leader who is not willing to sacrifice his comfort, time, and even “resume” for the sake of the entire team is not a team player and will fail to develop the following he needs in order to move the ministry forward. Loyalty begats loyalty. Show loyalty to your subordinate by taking the blow in his place and you will produce people ready to live and die for the cause you stand for. No ministry or organization will amount to anything if it’s not willing to sacrifice to get there, and when the leader demonstrates that he is willing to sacrifice, so will his followers.

This does not mean that the leader never reproves or corrects his followers. One evening the ministry I lead scheduled a big event at someone’s house. The evening was to close with all ministry teams meeting to train and plan. One key player in my team failed to show up even though I had emailed, phone-called, and personally talked to him about this meeting. When his coach asked me where he was, I told him I didn’t know but that it was ultimately my fault—I should have done whatever it takes to make sure he gets there. If I put the blame on the guy absent, I’d publicly embarrass him and accomplish nothing except fear and distrust. However, the next day I called the guy up and asked what happened. “I forgot,” he said. Lame excuse, but I respected his honesty. “Jack,” I said, “I need to know I can trust you. Can you follow through on this stuff or not?” We talked for a while and his response was humble and eager to improve.

The second problem with blaming our subordinates is by doing so we teach ourselves to react to problems instead of to fix them. Blaming accomplishes nothing. Yes, even if someone failed to come through, you were still the one who asked him or her to serve in that position. Instead of blaming, ask, “What can I do to fix this?” and then do it.

The second principle is as important as the first: empowerment.

2. The wise leader empowers his followers to lead.

This means give her the baton and let her run. This is hard, because if she trips, who gets the blame? You, the one who empowered her. You can see why it’s so tempting to cast out one of these two habits and only embrace the other. But you need both. You need responsibility to encourage loyalty and you need empowerment to multiply yourself. The temptation when your subordinate messes up is to either blame her in anger or fire her. But neither fixes the problem unless she has severe character faults or is not fit for the job. In 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul instructs Timothy to pass on to others what he has passed on to him. These “others” are men who are “faithful” and “able to teach.” This means you don’t empower just anybody to lead. Select people with potential. Find people who are teachable but responsible, people you can imagine growing and learning to excel in the area you are entrusting them to.

If someone messes up, take the blame, do whatever it takes to fix the problem, and then ask them to lead again. Part of rectifying the problem may include reproving the person who caused it, providing more training, re-ordering the program, getting the technical glitches smoothed out, or just being patient with the person who slipped. But take the blame. However, if we are to take the blame when our subordinate errors, who gets the praise when they excel? They do! This is perfectly modeled by Jesus Christ. Jesus took our blame and yet when we excel He shares His glory with us (Rom 8:17; 2 Thess 1:12)! Jesus always gives Himself the worse deal so others can have the best. That’s wise leadership. Yes, even the gospel teaches us something about two habits every leader should court.