Even when it wasn’t your fault, owning the scoreboard is what makes you worth following.

Explaining accurately why something was not your doing is usually true and always deflating. A group sitting in a bad result does not need the blame distributed; it needs someone to accept the whole thing and start from there. Taking it on is not dishonesty about the causes, it is a decision about who carries the weight.

After the next bad outcome, resist the urge to explain your part first. Say what went wrong, say that it is yours to fix, and then say what changes. Handle any individual accountability privately, afterwards, where it belongs.