THE FIRST STANDARD to which a leader is held is Mission Accomplishment. The leader of an organization is responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen in that organization. Every Marine officer is taught this on the very first day of Officer Candidate School and it is reiterated and reinforced throughout their career.

A few hours into the battle of Najaf, Mac and some of his Marines witnessed an American helicopter shot down. Najaf was the biggest fight in the entire area of operation at the time, so the Marines and sailors present received more support than ever before. It appeared that every type of aircraft in the U.S. arsenal was buzzing over their heads while dropping bombs and firing rockets into the cemetery. American helicopters were by far the most vulnerable aircraft to the enemy’s return fire. They flew low and slow over the fighting, acquiring and engaging enemy targets, evacuating casualties, and providing intelligence to the ground forces. Mac’s platoon was spread along a main road engaging enemy targets in the Najaf cemetery. Out of the corner of his eye, Mac saw a helicopter shudder and jerk. It swayed drunkenly over the ground, smoke belching out of a rear engine, and then it dropped. It didn’t slam into the ground in an overly dramatic Hollywood fireball. Rather, it just dropped out of the sky like a puppet that had its strings cut. A plume of dust marked the crash site—in enemy-controlled territory.

Mac knew that enemy fighters would be racing for the helicopter and that the crew was in immediate danger.

“Who is closest to the crash site?” the Battalion Operations officer queried over the radio.

“This is Warpig. I’ve got it,” Mac responded. Other units responded that they were in positions to support as well. Mac and his Marines were immediately tasked with rescuing the downed helicopter crew. It was their mission. It didn’t matter that Mac and his Marines had been awake for over 35 hours and been in a serious life-or-death fire-fight for the last 5 hours. It didn’t matter that some of Mac’s best Marines had been seriously wounded and medically evacuated. It didn’t matter that Mac had been shot in the shoulder an hour prior. The mission was to rescue the Marine helicopter crew, and Mac knew that accomplishing that mission was the standard to which he, as the leader of his unit, would be held.

He didn’t have time to come up with a grandiose plan. Instead, he keyed the radio microphone on his helmet and said, “2 this is 1. On me. Go, go, go!” Sergeant Allen, Mac’s point man, his “2,” responded, “Roger,” and they raced toward the crash site with their engines redlined. They reached the helicopter at the same time as vehicles from a nearby Combined Anti-Armor Team (CAAT). Insurgents sprinted around the corner, guns raised, but the CAAT Marines and Marines from Mac’s other vehicle shot them before they could reach the helicopter. The enemy concentrated their firepower on the area and bullets were cracking over the Marines’ heads. Because the armor on Mac’s LAVs was much stronger than the relatively thin skin of the helicopter, they positioned their vehicles between the helicopter and the enemy. Using the vehicles as cover from the enemy fire, Mac’s scouts, along with Marines from the other units, were able to extract the helicopter crew. All were still alive. Mission accomplished.

Mac himself didn’t shoot anyone, nor did he pull the pilots from the wreckage of their helicopter. However, along with his subordinate leaders, he made the decisions and provided the leadership that allowed his unit to accomplish their mission and saves the lives of three Marines.

As discussed in Section 1, the responsibility of command states that the leader gets more credit than deserved when the team does well. The leader also gets more blame than deserved when it doesn’t. Great leaders distribute the former, but fully assume the latter.

This is a tough concept for some people to understand and may sound harsh. A Team Captain can play a tremendous game, can lead the team in scoring, and make head-turning plays. However, if the team’s mission was to win the game and that didn’t happen, the leader is responsible for that failure. A regional director of sales may be a wonderful human being, a great listener, emotionally intelligent, trustworthy, and great at sales. That person may even be responsible for closing the biggest sale in the region, but if the region’s mission was to attain a certain revenue level and the region failed to do so, then he or she is failing as a leader.

In the military, Mac was counseled (putting it gently) more times than he cares to remember on mistakes that his Marines made. He wasn’t the one who actually got behind the wheel after drinking. He wasn’t actually the one who went into cold-weather training without packing warming layers, but he was still held responsible for these mistakes. Leaders are responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen in their units.

We are all willing to accept the benefits when the mission is accomplished. As leaders, we must be even more adamant about assuming the blame when it is not. If not, we can still be great athletes or salespeople, but we aren’t leaders. Many have influence, but they aren’t leaders. They may have an ability and they may even think they have the desire to be one, but an unwillingness or inability to accept the responsibility of command reflects otherwise.

President Truman kept a sign on his desk: “The buck stops here.” The term originated during poker games in frontier days in which the dealer was marked by placing a Buck knife in front of him. If a player did not want the responsibility of dealing, he could “pass the Buck.” President Truman understood that he was ultimately responsible for the governing of the country and that he could never pass it off. Too often this lesson is forgotten. We have all seen leaders who want the credit when things go well, but refuse to take responsibility for the failures of their organization. These kinds of leaders cannot build or sustain a championship culture.

How can we tell who they might be? Listen to them speak. Pronouns matter. Successes should be because “they [the team] did such a wonderful job.” Mistakes should be because “I failed.”

Leaders are responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen in their organization. Great leaders ensure consistent mission accomplishment.