Look at your own faults first
The leader's first audit is of their own conduct, which removes the habit of blame from the top.
In practice: Open every post-mortem by the senior leader naming what they personally got wrong.
The 27 models
WCRC-GLC-16 — The Renaissance Masters
Sri Sarada Devi
The WCRC Make-It-Your-Own Belonging Model
Check your own faults first; make no one a stranger.
THE MODEL
The WCRC Make-It-Your-Own Belonging Model
The Make-It-Your-Own Belonging Model starts with self-scrutiny: the leader looks first at their own faults before judging anyone. From there belonging widens outward, from the close team to difficult people and finally to everyone the organisation touches, with second chances and steady daily discipline holding it together.
Anchor teaching: "If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others… Learn to make the whole world your own."
This is a selection of teachers linked with the Hindu tradition, not a ranking. The models offer management reflection, not religious instruction.
WCRC is not affiliated with or endorsed by any teacher or organisation discussed.
MODEL STRUCTURE
How it works
No stranger in the team
Everyone, including contractors, new joiners and remote staff, is treated as one's own.
In practice: Give every new and peripheral team member the same access to the leader as long-standing insiders.
Second chances
People who have failed or behaved badly can be received back when they turn around, as the robber of Telo-Bhelo was.
In practice: Set a clear, fair route back for people after a serious mistake, with expectations stated plainly.
Work as worship
Ordinary, unseen work done with care carries as much dignity as visible achievement.
In practice: Recognise the maintenance, support and care work that keeps the business running, by name.
Steady faith
A fixed daily discipline keeps the leader calm enough to hold difficult people without reacting.
In practice: Keep a short reflection at the start and end of each working day, whatever the schedule.
TEACHING AND CONTEXT
The thinking behind it
Devotees recount that while walking alone across the lonely Telo-Bhelo fields to Dakshineswar, she met a robber and his wife and spoke to them as their daughter. They saw the Divine Mother in her, gave up crime and later came to visit her. Years afterwards in Jayrambati she received Amjad, a feared local robber, and fed him as her own son while villagers looked on in alarm.
Do not find fault; make the world your own: real peace comes from seeing our own faults, not other people's; no one is a stranger.
Her last counsel. As translated in Gospel of the Holy Mother, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai (quoted by Belur Math and Sri Sarada Math)Universal motherhood: "I am the mother of the virtuous as well as the wicked."
As translated in Gospel of the Holy Mother, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai (quoted by Belur Math)Work as worship: ordinary duties such as cooking, serving and nursing done with love are spiritual practice, balanced with prayer.
Britannica; vedanta.org reminiscenceSteady japa and meditation, sitting at least morning and evening.
Sri Sarada Math, citing Gospel of the Holy MotherOPERATING MODEL
From principle to practice
Inputs
- Leader's daily self-scrutiny
- Clear standards with a route back
- Equal access for every team member
- Respect for unseen work
Practices
- Leader-first fault review in post-mortems
- Structured second chances after mistakes
- Inclusion of peripheral and new staff
- Naming and thanking support work
Outputs
- Less blame, more candour
- People willing to admit errors early
- Fewer outsiders inside the company
- Retained talent after recoverable failures
Outcomes
- Psychologically safe teams
- Higher trust in leadership
- Faster learning from mistakes
- Wide sense of belonging
BENEFIT MODEL
Who it is for
leader
Starting with their own faults frees the leader from constant judging and makes them easier to approach.
employees
They can admit mistakes and still belong, and those on the edges of the organisation are treated as insiders.
customers
Problems surface and get fixed sooner because staff are not afraid to report them.
investors
A culture that learns from mistakes instead of hiding them carries fewer unpleasant surprises.
society
Second chances given in a fair, structured way help people rebuild working lives that might otherwise be lost.
WCRC MODEL PARAMETERS
Model emphasis
The scores describe this model's emphasis on each parameter. They are not scores for a person or organisation.
Vision Quotient2 / 5
Impact Index3 / 5
Innovation Score3 / 5
People Leadership5 / 5
Stakeholder Trust5 / 5
Resilience Factor4 / 5
Global Mindset3 / 5
THE AI AGE
Why it matters now
As AI changes how work is done, people have to say out loud what they do not yet understand, and that needs a team where interpersonal risk feels safe. Edmondson defined team psychological safety as "a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking" [1], and Google's Project Aristotle put psychological safety first among five dynamics of effective teams [2]. Leaders who acknowledge their own limits and model teachability [3] make it easier for everyone else to learn the new tools without shame.
EXECUTION
Put the model to work
At your next review or post-mortem, open by naming what you personally got wrong before anyone else speaks.
Founder and CEO
- Open with your own faults: From the first week, begin every post-mortem and review you attend by naming your own part in the problem. Keep it short and specific, then let others speak.
- Keep a daily reflection: Take a few minutes at the start and end of each working day to look at your own conduct before judging anyone else's. Hold to it whatever the schedule.
- Make no one a stranger: Give new joiners, contractors and remote staff the same access to you as long-standing insiders, through open time every week. In a large company, visit the teams furthest from head office first.
- Receive people back fairly: When someone has failed badly and turned around, take a direct part in their route back and state the expectations plainly. Never let this excuse harm to others.
- Thank the unseen work: Each month, name and thank people whose maintenance, support or care work keeps the business running. Do it in person where you can.
Company
- Diagnose blame and belonging (CHRO with CEO office): Review recent post-mortems for who admitted fault, measure how long errors took to surface, and check which groups feel like outsiders. Include contractors, new joiners and remote staff.
- Pilot leader-first post-mortems (One business head): In one unit, require the most senior person at every review to name their own contribution first, and set a clear route back after serious mistakes. Compare early error reporting with other units after a quarter.
- Embed second chances and standards (CHRO and legal): Write a fair, documented route back after serious mistakes, with plain expectations and clear limits where harm to others rules it out. Add recognition of support work to review and reward criteria.
- Train managers in self-scrutiny (CHRO and all people managers): Teach managers to open reviews with their own faults, to include peripheral staff fully and to hold standards while giving second chances. Warn them against using family language to ask for unpaid effort.
- Measure candour and recovery (HR analytics): Track leader-first admissions, the psychological safety score, time to report errors and the share of people given a second chance who perform well a year later. Review the figures each quarter by team.
- Scale with standards intact (CEO and board): Extend leader-first reviews and the route back to every unit once the pilot shows faster error reporting, and check each year that belonging has not slid into tolerating harm. Make sure teams own their part alongside the leader.
Readiness check
Before starting
- Do our senior people name their own mistakes first when something goes wrong?
- Do contractors, new joiners and remote staff have the same access to leaders as insiders?
- Do we have a fair, written route back after a serious mistake, with clear limits?
Phase 1 · Diagnose and commit
Find where blame starts and who sits outside the circle, beginning with the leader's own conduct.
- Review the past year's post-mortems and record how many were opened by the most senior person naming their own part.
- Measure the time between a mistake occurring and it being reported to someone who can fix it.
- Run a short validated survey on safety to speak up, by team.
- List the peripheral groups, such as contractors, remote staff and new joiners, and check what access each has to the leader.
Deliverable: A blame-and-belonging baseline, plus the CEO's own written note on what they got wrong in the last review they chaired.
Gate: Baseline recorded for every KPI, and the CEO has opened at least one review by naming their own faults first.
Phase 2 · Pilot and prove
Prove that leader-first post-mortems bring errors to light sooner in one business.
- The pilot business head opens every review by naming what they personally got wrong before anyone else speaks.
- Invite contractors, remote staff and new joiners into those reviews, so there is no stranger in the team.
- Each week, name one piece of unseen maintenance or support work and the person who did it, treating work as worship.
- The head keeps a short reflection at the start and end of each day to stay steady with difficult people.
Deliverable: A record of every pilot review, the time-to-report data and the pilot team's safety survey.
Gate: Every pilot review was opened by the senior person, early error reporting has been measured for the pilot period, and the pilot team's safety score is at or above baseline.
Phase 3 · Embed and scale
Write second chances and standards into policy and make leader-first reviews the norm.
- The CHRO and legal write a route back after a serious mistake, with stated expectations and a clear exclusion where others have been harmed.
- Make leader-first opening the standard for every post-mortem and review across the company.
- Train managers in self-scrutiny, using their own recent decisions as the material.
- Give peripheral staff the same access to leaders as long-standing insiders, and ban 'family' language in requests for extra effort.
Deliverable: An approved second-chance policy with its standards clause, a company-wide review standard and a trained manager group.
Gate: The second-chance policy is approved with the standards clause intact, and every unit is running leader-first reviews.
Phase 4 · Sustain and renew
Keep belonging warm and standards firm as the company grows.
- Check a year later how many people given a second chance remain and perform well.
- Audit for martyrdom: in reviews, does the team also own its part, or does the leader absorb every failure?
- Re-run the safety survey and the time-to-report measure and compare them with the baseline.
- Review working hours where 'family' language is common, to catch unpaid loyalty being asked for.
Deliverable: An annual belonging review covering leader-first admissions, safety, early reporting and recovery after setbacks.
Gate: Recovery after setbacks is tracked for every second chance granted, and early error reporting is faster than the baseline.
Governance
sponsor: The CEO, because self-scrutiny only spreads if the most senior person shows it first.
lead: The CHRO, who owns the review standard, the second-chance policy and the four KPIs.
forum: The monthly people review in the leadership meeting, and the board's people committee once a year.
decision_rights: The lead can grant a second chance within the policy; any case involving harm to others or legal risk goes to the sponsor with legal advice.
Cadence
Daily: The leader's short reflection at the start and end of the working day, whatever the schedule.
Weekly: Each manager names one piece of unseen work and the person who did it.
Monthly: Every post-mortem held that month is checked for whether the senior person opened with their own part.
Quarterly: The safety-to-speak-up pulse, by team, including contractors and remote staff.
Annually: The outcomes of every second chance granted are reviewed against the stated expectations.
By company stage
startup
The founder opens every retrospective by naming their own mistake and invites freelancers and new joiners to the same meetings. Second chances are decided by the founder in person, with expectations said out loud.
scaleup
Leader-first reviews become standard, the CHRO writes the second-chance policy with legal, and managers are trained in self-scrutiny. Contractors and remote staff are included in reviews and surveys.
enterprise
Every unit runs leader-first reviews, the second-chance policy applies across countries with local legal checks, and safety scores are reported by group. The board's people committee reviews belonging measures and checks that standards have not been loosened.
Success looks like
- Senior leaders routinely open reviews by naming their own mistakes, and teams follow.
- Mistakes are reported sooner, including by contractors and new joiners.
- People given a second chance are still there and doing well, and colleagues see the route back as fair.
MEASUREMENT AND LIMITS
What to watch
Leader-first admissions
Track the share of post-mortems and reviews in which the most senior person present names their own contribution to the problem.
Psychological safety score
Run a short validated team survey on safety to speak up and track it by team over time.
Early error reporting
Measure the time between a mistake occurring and it being reported to someone who can fix it.
Recovery after setbacks
Record the share of people given a formal second chance who remain and perform well a year later.
Failure modes
- Belonging without standards: refusing to find fault turns into tolerating harm to others.
- Self-scrutiny becomes martyrdom, with the leader absorbing every failure and the team never owning its part.
- "Family" language is used to ask for unpaid loyalty and effort that a family would never demand.
Execution risks
- Belonging slips into tolerating harm, and refusing to find fault protects people who hurt others.: Repeat incidents after a second chance, and complaints from those harmed. Mitigation: Make every second chance conditional, exclude cases of harm to others, and record the expectations in writing.
- The leader names a small fault for form, and blame then lands on junior staff as before.: Reviews open with a token admission and end with actions assigned only to the most junior people. Mitigation: Have a facilitator check that the team also names its part, and rotate who facilitates.
- 'Family' language is used to ask for unpaid loyalty and effort.: Unpaid overtime rises in teams where the language is common, and requests for extra effort cite the family. Mitigation: Ban family framing in workload requests and check hours in those teams.
- Peripheral staff stay outside despite the policy.: Contractors and remote staff are absent from reviews and score lower on the safety survey. Mitigation: Put peripheral groups on every review invite list and report their survey scores separately.
RESEARCH SOURCES
Sources and notes
- Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.
- Google re:Work. Guide: Understand team effectiveness (Project Aristotle). Google.
- Owens, B. P., & Hekman, D. R. (2012). Modeling how to grow: An inductive examination of humble leader behaviors, contingencies, and outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 55(4), 787–818.
- Kohlrieser, G., Goldsworthy, S., & Coombe, D. (2012). Care to Dare: Unleashing Astonishing Potential Through Secure Base Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley. See also Kohlrieser, G. et al. (2013), 'Care to dare to unleash astonishing employee potential', IMD.
The WCRC Guru Management Codex and its 27 models are proprietary WCRC models. © WCRC. All rights reserved.