In Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll made a decision that will be remembered in sports history for decades. With 26 seconds left in the game and the Seahawks down by four, they had the ball on the New England Patriots’ one-yard line. Instead of handing the ball to their running back Marshawn Lynch—the best running back in the NFL at the time—Carroll called a passing play on second down. The Patriots intercepted the ball and won the game. The headlines called it “the worst play call in NFL history,” the “dumbest call in Super Bowl history,” and a “terrible Super Bowl mistake.”

Carroll would of course disagree with this Monday morning quarterbacking, believing it was the right call based on the numbers and his experience. But there is no disputing that the play did not work. So the more interesting question is: What did Carroll do next? How did he respond to this brutal media onslaught?

In short, he owned it. “I told those guys, ‘That’s my fault, totally,’” Carroll said after the game. And later, when given the chance to pass off some of the blame to his offensive coordinator, Carroll refused, saying, “I made the decision.”

This is what a leader does. They make the best decision they can with the information they have, fully aware, as the Stoics would say, that the outcome is outside ‘what is up to us.’ But while the results of our decision are not in our hands, we pick the ball back up with how we respond to that corresponding success or failure. Do we own it or run from it? Take the blame and share credit?

Big or small, a crime or a bad play call, every decision lives in the past. In the here and now, they no longer exist, can no longer be touched. All that remains is what you do next. You can take responsibility. You can build on the lessons of your mistake. You can move forward. You can make sure you don’t compound the mistake. You can decide how the next part of the story gets written.

That’s what leadership is about.