Poor Tony Hayward – he just wants his life back. OK – that’s officially the stupidest comment of the year, but he’s apologized now, so it should all be OK. Like most important life-lessons (whether it be business or personal), the fundamentals were taught to us in Kindergarten, we’ve just chosen to forget, or not apply them.
I was watching Disney/Pixar’s A Bug’s Life with my son the other day, when Hopper (the chief antagonist, and all-around bad ass) reminded Princess Atta that the number one rule of leadership is that “Everything is Your Fault”. Apparently Mr. Hayward hasn’t watched any children’s programming lately, or he might have gotten some of this right.
If it’s any consolation, BP is not the only company to have reacted to a bad situation by making it exponentially worse. Just a few months ago, we were watching Toyota come unglued like an Egyptian mummy in a swimming pool. It seems that every organization to have screwed up (or just had plain bad luck) seems to go into ass-covering mode with the exception of Tylenol in the 1980s, and Maple Leaf foods just two years ago.
The big difference: both the Tylenol and Maple Leaf disasters killed people, but instead of hiding behind their lawyers, the leaders of these companies made themselves front and centre, and took responsibility for the (in)actions of their organizations.
So what can the middle manager or front level supervisor learn from all the silliness?
First… go rent A Bug’s Life, and listen to Kevin Spacey’s line about leadership responsibility over and over again. When you think you’ve learned it, go listen to it a bunch more times so that when the excrement hits the rotating air-circulation device, you won’t try to cover your ass, but rather step up and take your lumps.
Second… manage your little empire proactively. In areas that could get you into big trouble (health & safety, violence in the workplace, harassment, discrimination, etc.) don’t ever settle for less than outstanding performance. Executives at BP will not only oversee the loss of billions of dollars/pounds of shareholder value, but they may be held personally liable for sloppy process. It’s not out of the question that one or more of them end up in jail/gaol.
Third… understand that taking responsibility is the burden of leadership. This is what we pay you to do. It’s what you signed up for in the first place. If you’re unable to get your head around this, you should get yourself reassigned as an individual contributor. Yep… that right: If you “want your life back”, you should think about that before disaster strikes.