What Leaders Know
by Miki Saxon
A couple of weeks ago, Steven Pearlstein said, “Their leadership failure was a big part of the story of how we got into this mess…a number of executives have complained that this indictment is both too broad and too harsh. Given what was known at the time and the competitive and legal pressures that come to bear in these situations, they believe their actions and judgments were reasonable.”
“I didn’t know…” is America’s favorite excuse, although it won’t hold up in a court of law; ignorantia legis neminem excusat (ignorance of the law excuses no one) dates back to Roman times.
The operative word is ‘know’ and, unfortunately, there’s a lot of latitude in what one chooses to know.
People don’t know anything that
- disagrees with their ideology or world-view;
- is presented by the opposition or those with whom they disagree;
- conflicts with their personal goals/agenda; or is
- inconvenient or annoying.
The irony is that Wall Street’s leaders really didn’t know—for all the above reasons.
If you truly want to lead—yourself, your family, a company or any other organization—than it’s your responsibility to not just listen, but also to hear past all those reasons.
We’ll talk more about how to do this in tomorrow’s Ducks In A Row post.
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Image credit: scx.hu
