Look out the window for credit, in the mirror for blame

When things go well, credit others; when things go wrong, look at yourself first.

Why it works

Collins observed that Level 5 leaders attributed success to team members and favorable conditions while taking personal responsibility for failures — the inverse of most leaders. The window-and-mirror practice builds genuine accountability and psychologically safe team cultures: people bring problems to a leader who absorbs blame rather than distributes it.

How to do it

1. After successes, explicitly name the specific contributions that made it happen.
2. After failures, start your debrief with "What did I miss? What could I have done differently?"
3. In retrospective conversations, resist using "they failed" as a starting point.
4. Use "I" for failures and "we" or team members’ names for wins — consistently, not strategically.

Evidence

Research on accountability and psychological safety supports this pattern: leaders who model responsibility rather than blame create environments where problems surface earlier. (observational)

Collins’ window-and-mirror observation is from his retrospective comparative study; psychological safety research is the related empirical anchor.

Sources

• Edmondson (1999), psychological safety and team learning, Administrative Science Quarterly

Common mistake

Using the practice as a script — saying "we" succeeded while privately believing it was you. People detect the performance and it erodes trust rather than building it.