Some of the hardest aspects of gracefully holding a leadership position boil down to admitting fault and dealing praise.
Ted Spooner, CEO for RespondWell in Grand Rapids, Mich.: My dad once told me that a good leader "takes blame and gives credit". When faced with failure, the will to resist the temptation to deflect responsibility needs to be very strong. Demonstrating to your staff that failure is not fatal through your willingness to "take blame" is hard. Harder still is the will to deflect success onto your team. In my mind, this is the real test of a leader.