CAN LEADERS BE HUMAN?

This is my first post in several months. I have been preparing to retire from the Navy at the end of this month. I very much appreciated all of the emails and messages asking when I was going to post again. I am hoping to gradually get my posting schedule back to a daily status. I hope you enjoy my blog and will continue to support it. Thanks!

The media has been full of incidents where leaders have made poor decisions. The disturbing thing to me is that these so called, leaders, have acted like they cannot accept responsibility for their actions. They instead try to re-direct their actions, blame others, or act as if they have no knowledge of the events. I've spoken several times on this blog about social media and the dangers of using it improperly. Whether it be sending inappropriate pictures via twitter, or posting pictures of your spring break party on Facebook. You have to understand that you are under a microscope as a leader. Especially if you are an elected official.

What do you do if you discover that you've made a mistake or shown bad judgement?

1. Accountability: You must hold yourself accountable, just as you would one of your employees. If you cannot, then don't expect your employees to respect or work for you.
2. Responsibility: Acknowledge your mistake. Do not try and hide it or blame it on someone or something else. It shows much more character when you acknowledge your mistakes, then it does to lie about or try and cover them up. It also shows your employees that it's OK to make a mistake. 
3. Learn from it: To me this is one of the greatest tools that a mistake or bad judgement can give you. Learn from it, understand why you made the decision you did. Understand how you could have made a better decision. 
4. Take action: Once you have learned from your poor decision making, take the appropriate steps to ensure that it doesn't happen again. Whether it is not hitting the, "Send" button or defending your incorrect understanding of American history. 

I understand that it's easy to look in on someone else and say, "Just take responsibility for your actions" I have made my share of mistakes as a leader, and on a personal level. I have always made a point to take responsibility for my actions, hold my self accountable and to try and learn from it. It's not fun, it's embarrassing and can cause pain to others. In the long run though, it causes growth and stronger relationships. More importantly, it creates better, human, leaders. 

Why is it important to have accountability as a Leader? Does it show strength or weakness? Why or why not?

Thieves, liars and accountability

Accountability, are you holding yourself accountable?

Lessons in Losing

Dave Martin / AP

There's a lot of celebrating fans in Green Bay today. The other side, Pittsburgh, not so much. It's tauted as the, "World championship" What can we learn from the losing team of Super Bowl XLV about leadership? Yes, I said, the losing team.

First things first, I'm not a big NFL fan. I watch it from time to time, but I'm not a die hard fan. I watched the Super bowl, because it's the last NFL game of the year and appeared it would be a good game, which it did not disappoint.

As the final ticks of the clock evaporated from the play clock there was elation on the Green Bay Packers sideline, while there was disappointment and defeat on Pittsburgh Steelers side.

As the two teams went in different emotional directions the first thing I noticed after Pittsburgh's coach, Mike Tomlin had shook hands with the Green Bay coaches was that while he was leaving the field, he had his arm around one of his players and was talking to him. Now, I've seen a lot of coaches in this situation just alienate themselves from their players and walk off the field alone. Much different then when they win, hugging, jumping into others arms, cheering one another. Coach Tomlin showed me a lot about his character and his leadership in this moment. He did what good leaders do in defeat, he immediately started to lift up his people.

Flash forward to the press conference. On one side you have Green Bay answering all the easy questions about victory, on the other, the Pittsburgh players and coaches answering all of the, "What if?" questions. Again, Coach Tomlin impressed me when he stated, " You may make excuses, not me, I will not make excuses, Green Bay played a heck of a game and made the plays they needed to win the championship"

Our human nature is to look to anything that we can credit with our demise in a losing situation, it had to be because _____ ( enter excuse) Coach Tomlin didn't do that, he did what good leadership does, he accepted his loss. He didn't deflect it to the QB Ben Roethlisberger two interceptions or to injuries to 3 starters. He took responsibility for the loss and then gave credit where credit was due.

I found an interesting quote by Coach Tomlin, when asked about the importance of winning the super bowl, "It's down the list, to be quite honest with you," Tomlin told Baptist Press. "I'm a husband. I'm a father of three. I'm blessed enough to be the head coach of this group of men, countless other things. I'm a brother. I'm a son. It's down the list."


Wow, a head coach in the NFL saying that winning the Super Bowl is down on the list of priorities? Maybe that's why he is the youngest head coach to ever win a Super Bowl? He understands priorities.


Coach Tomlin later then stated,  "Football is what we do; it's not who we are. It is our job, it is our business. We all are very passionate about it, we all want to do very well at it, but [faith] keeps it in perspective."


This begs the question, Leaders, what are your priorities? Does your job or position define who you are? 


What did we learn from losing?

• Accept Responsibility
• Don't make excuses
• Immediately start to lift your people up
• Importance of understanding priorities
• Understand your job is what you do, it doesn't define you

You have any thoughts on losing or this article? I'm interested and listening, please share.