BLOG: Two-year olds make great CEO’s - but who takes the accountability?
A recent article by Lucy Kellaway in the `Financial Times' and shared with us by Business day reflects how Nicholas Brann makes a great case for the similarity between two-year olds and CEO’s ! (read the article here http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=120887 ).Being a parent myself it makes fun reading and a lot of sense however it led me to reflect on the accountability side of leadership - certainly few two year olds take responsibility for their actions and decisions. Should leaders take accountability for their actions ......
A growing concern for me these days is the tendency to blame others when things go wrong - classic cases were the MacDonalds hot coffee spill (coffee was too hot to drink right away), a recent rail crossing tragedy (where people argued the barriers should be longer), the indirect deaths and physical suffering resultant on innocent people by the public servants strike (no union leader challenged their members), Judge Nkola Motata (drunk driving) Jackie Selebi (corruption) and Arthur Brown (Fidentia scandal) and even the Springbok and Bafana performances - (players too tired, injuries hit us, referees are not consistent etc).
Understanding one’s leadership power base as well as the organization and environmental culture in which one is leading is essential to taking accountability for decisions. Insecure leaders will duck accountability and keep a low profile.
A notable outlier to this has been the public statements by President Obama on a few occasions this year (Jan in response to a failed bombing attempt and May in response to the Gulf spill) that “ ...I’m the President and the buck stops with me.” How wonderful if more leaders would be confident enough to stand up and take responsibility - especially when things go wrong. But would they be seen as human and growing from the lessons or would they be sealing their own fate? How many of us say - yes take responsibility, yet when someone does accept responsibility how many of us enjoy and support their being battered in a media and public ‘whipping’?
Great leaders are able to take accountability for their actions and survive - because we would suggest they deliver strong leadership, look after their followers needs, are open and transparent and have sound values - given that context, people are more ready to accept failures and will recognize that trying some solutions can sometimes result in failure. This is where the trade off is. One may be forgiven for one or two mistakes but consistently making them will get you into trouble.... When this happens does it make sense to take accountability? That is not to say every time something does not work, leaders should offer to stand aside. It becomes a trade-off between your personal metrics and doing the right thing.... and the size of the trade-off will determine the action you take.
Where do you stand in taking accountability in your personal and organizational life, or do you lead with the accountability of a two year old?