Responsibility

"Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off." ~ Colin Powell

If you just want to make everyone happy all the time, being a leader is going to be a major letdown for you.

Do the right thing, even if it is not the easy thing. Protect your people, even if that protection makes the people bullying them angry. Insist on following the right course of action when the other paths would not be right.

If you have more than one option, of course, pick the one that causes the least amount of harm or upset. And if you have a way of doing things that minimizes the embarrassment of others, choose that method. But don’t let the fear of an awkward social situation or of giving offense sway you into doing the wrong thing. Don’t let that fear immobilize you when people need you to step forward. Don’t do nothing when you know that you should do something.

Have courage.

(image source: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/commissioned-portrait-gen-colin-l-powell-be-installed-smithsonian-s-national-portrait-galle)