Leaders are people too. And this means leaders are creatures of habit just like everybody else.

Aristotle said it well: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit." The same thing can be said for failure. Basically, Aristotle recognized the power of what I call "HabitForce."

Fast-forwarding a few centuries to the present, I believe it's essential for the PR and public affairs community to appreciate the role "HabitForce" plays in determining the behavioral and thought patterns of the executives and officials they serve.

Note this: Our personal "HabitForce" operates on autopilot, like a software program or personal operating system. If you're providing PR support for somebody in a leadership position, it's a good idea to be aware of specific "HabitForce" patterns, especially those that tend to work against the interests of the organization, the country, or even the world community at large.

Which brings me to the current economic meltdown and the leadership crisis we've experienced. I'm not talking only about the failure of political leadership from Washington and foreign capitals. Leadership has been woefully lacking in the business world, as well.

This headline from The New York Times (March 26, 2009) captures the situation: "Where's the Plan, Wall Street?"

Let's face it. The budget crisis in Washington didn't materialize overnight. Nor did the long-festering energy and healthcare problems we face, not to mention the subprime lending fiasco and the resulting financial sector meltdown. All of these issues have been gestating over long periods of time.

As President Obama declared in his recent address to Congress, the day of reckoning has arrived.

But we won't succeed in digging ourselves out of the ditch we're in unless we recognize and change the disempowering leadership habits that led us into this perilous situation in the first place.

So what does this all mean to PR professionals?

The answer: PR people can play a uniquely important role in turning things around. But only if they understand how "HabitForce" operates and proactively counsel their executives to avoid the failure traps of highly ineffective leaders. In my new book, "The Real F Word: The 7 FAILURE Traps of Highly Disempowered People (And What to do About Them)," I describe the seven habits that hold people (and leaders) back from achieving their potential. I also discuss the seven equal-but-opposite SUCCESS habits that propel people toward their goals.

Throughout the recent presidential campaign and in the months since the election, I've been struck by how much the seven FAILURE traps and SUCCESS tracks detailed in my book‹originally developed as personal empowerment tools to help individuals close the gap between their performance and their potential — also apply with only minor adjustments to those who occupy leadership positions in business or government.

Here's a handy checklist of FAILURE and SUCCESS habits — a kind of cheat sheet for PR practitioners— for measuring how your clients or the leaders in your organization are doing. Your job is to help your executives avoid the PR pitfalls represented by the FAILURE traps on the left and move them toward the more positive SUCCESS habits on the right:

More broadly, what we need more than anything — in Washington and in capitals around the world— is what I call "FAILURE-Proof Leadership" that rejects the disempowering habits listed on the left that created the mess we're in and instead adopts the uplifting SUCCESS mindsets listed on the right that will lead to a brighter future.

For the purposes of this short article, I want to focus on the first habit of leadership FAILURE (Finger-Pointing) and the corresponding SUCCESS habit (Shoulder Responsibility).

If a leader habitually engages in finger-pointing (making excuses and playing the blame game), the organization he or she leads is doomed to failure. The organization in question could be a country, an international corporation or a small nonprofit. A leader worthy of the name must always shoulder responsibility, even when it's inconvenient or politically difficult to do so. Taking responsibility is essential for building trust and confidence. Shirking responsibility or making excuses undermines confidence and leads to paralysis and eventually to open rebellion.

People crave leaders who shoulder responsibility, because that's the only way to find solutions to vexing problems. This is especially true in a crisis. Finger-pointing is a recipe for problem-avoidance and denial. True leaders refuse the short-term refuge of denial and deniability.

How have we seen this principle play out in reality? Recently, we saw the spectacle of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich refusing to take responsibility for his blatant attempts to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. His was not exactly a profile in political courage, that's for sure.

We saw a veritable tsunami of finger-pointing after Hurricane Katrina. We've experienced unrelenting finger-pointing about the war in Iraq — both about why it was launched with faulty or distorted intelligence and how it has been conducted.

The same blame-first mentality applies to Social Security, education, healthcare, immigration, global warming, energy, the deficit — You name it. Every hot issue on the political agenda is a free-fire finger-pointing zone.

A broad consensus has emerged that one of George W. Bush's failings as president was his stubborn unwillingness to admit a mistake. Every predicament seems to have been somebody else's fault. Bush liked to say he was the decider. But in many ways large and small he became the "finger-pointer in chief."

As Ben Franklin wisely observed: "A person who is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else."

During the presidential campaign, opinion polls showed that most Americans thought the McCain-Palin campaign spent too much time attacking Barack Obama instead of laying out a positive agenda for the future. Attacking your opponent in a political campaign is nothing more than a variation on the finger-pointing theme. Sometimes, attack ads and other forms of negative campaigning work. The candidate using such tactics might actually win the election.

But name-calling and scape-goating an opponent doesn't actually solve a problem. And, as we found out in the 2008 election, voters clearly preferred the candidate who was widely perceived as setting forth a positive, detailed agenda for the future. Public opinion polls routinely gave the Obama campaign high marks for taking the high road, consistently debating the issues and not tearing down the other side.

It's important to underscore here that the habit of finger-pointing begins long before there is a raging crisis of confidence. It's a deep-seated mindset that avoids responsibility like the plague. But in reality, finger-pointing is like Kryptonite for any would-be leader. Once the finger-pointing label sticks to a person in a leadership position, it's virtually impossible to regain any semblance of authority and influence.

Playing the blame game is a short-term tactic that might buy the practitioner some time or help win the next election, but it's a losing proposition for the organization or the country over time. Postponing action, kicking the can down the road, is a recipe for delaying the day of reckoning.

All stakeholders in an organization‹and all citizens in a country — are much better served by leaders who habitually eschew the counter-productive finger-pointing approach and opt instead to shoulder responsibility. That's leadership we can believe in‹and the PR community can help us get there.

Matthew Cossolotto is a former aide to Congressman (now CIA Director) Leon Panetta and to Speaker of the US House of Representatives Jim Wright. His private-sector career includes stints as a CEO-level speechwriter and communications executive at MCI, Pepsi-Cola International, and GTE. In 1996, Matthew launched Ovations International, "Home of the Standing O®." Visit www.TheRealFWord.com or www.Ovations.com for more information.