Retired Captain Mike Lambert posts a thought-provoking entry every morning on his blog, “I Like the Cut of His Jib.” These posts typically deal with press reports about leadership issues, quotes from great leaders, or content from other writers. His 9 October entry was uncharacteristically his own creation. That post was a simple yet reflective list of attributes common to effective leaders, and included the statement that leaders try to “fix the problem and not the blame.”
The concept of personal accountability was best stated by President Harry S. Truman, famous for saying “the buck stops here.” We need to regain that attitude and ensure it is part of our culture. In Everyday Leader Heroes, I wrote about the leadership trait of being humble. That discussion included the statement “arrogant leaders are less likely to take full responsibility and more likely to justify their actions. Humble leaders take responsibility, face their failings, and take corrective actions.” Taking responsibility for one’s actions, and also those of subordinates, is why leadership is such a challenge and requires so much commitment.
This concept is not seen enough in our society even though many people believe in and display it. American news media are filled with stories of personal and professional failure at all levels of government and across industries. Too often those ultimately responsible for the organization in question attempt to justify their actions and cast the blame off themselves, pointing to predecessors, outside influences, subordinates, or other real or intangible reasons as the culprit. In many of these situations, senior leaders did not commit the personal, professional, or organizational transgression that led to public failure. Most people understand that, but most also understand the leader—whether of a federal department or a youth football team—is responsible for everything that happens within their organization. And we expect them to act that way.
The public examples we see are too often less-than-humble leaders who make public excuses for bad situations. The reaction of many federal government personnel after recent high-profile scandals and questionable decisions are examples, but this situation crosses political lines and presidential administrations, and it is not solely a government problem. Very often these same leaders also take public credit for good situations, but they can’t have it both ways. Leaders are accountable for the good and the bad. Unfortunately, we don’t typically see leaders taking full responsibility for bad situations while avoiding credit when things go right, attributes associated with genuine humility and personal accountability.
We have to do a better job of teaching this quality. Military leadership training often focuses on war heroes and leadership in combat. These are wonderful examples, but sailors need to lead in everyday situations, not in the heat of battle. They will face great personal triumph and defeat in relatively passive situations; they will be held responsible for the actions of their sailors they could have never imagined; they will be tested in ways most civilians would not believe.
What sailors need are more authentic examples of humble leaders who take responsibility for failure and refuse credit for success. We have leaders like this throughout the Fleet, but they are seldom rewarded sufficiently and are not adequately held up as examples. Instead our focus is too often on making examples of poor leaders and followers by publically condemning their mistakes yet not holding their seniors accountable.
It’s the positive leadership examples we need to see in the press and that leadership courses should highlight. This will help eliminate the need to teach future leaders that, while they can delegate authority when appropriate, they can never delegate accountability. We need to act with an honest belief that leaders must willingly accept and embrace this concept to truly lead.
Our actions must portray a sincere dedication to the goal of ultimate accountability among our leaders. We have to enable them to fix problems and not accept their attempts to fix blame.