Mr Adeniji
The buck stop here, the blame lies there?
Several years ago, on the occasion of the swearing in ceremony of new advisers, a past President of Nigeria seized the opportunity during his speech to send an unsettling reminder to the new team: As President and Commander-in-Chief, the power is vested in him and he alone will be accountable for its exercise. He declared unequivocally that he was not obliged to take their advice.The buck stopped with him
In recent discussions at different For a, it appears that the common reaction to criticism of disastrous outcomes from poor leadership decisions is to lay the blame at the foot of their advisers. This has led me to wonder aloud:
Is it that Leaders can do no wrong, or is this a self preservative response to avoid being seen or heard criticizing the powers that be? Perhaps, an attempt at a soft landing to make the hard to swallow reality more palatable?
Could this be because of the high expectations that advisers should be prophetic know-it-alls, who should foresee the well laid out future ahead of their clients, complete with the detailed outcome of all decision scenarios? or are advisers condemned to being convenient fall guys for when things go wrong?
Then again, we may uncover the secret by digging deep into our myths about leadership???
Peter Anderton’s conducted an impressive survey of the major Leadership ideas spanning the last 16 centuries busting many leadership myths with his startling conclusion that,” great leadership comes down to only two rules”;
- It’s NOT about you- summarized as the selflessness of Servant leadership
- It’s All about you-the responsibility expressed in the exemplary leadership of ”being the change you want you see in the world”
Peter shared a further key insight which speaks even more directly to the relationship between leaders and their advisers in the following quote: “We can find ourselves spinning around in circles searching for the silver bullet, something new that will magically let everything fall into place and my suggestion is that maybe everything that we need to know about Leadership and life was written down a long time ago, maybe it’s simply time for us to start listening, listening to what’s already been said”
Leaders are ”navigators constantly thrust at the crossroads of complicated choices”, confirming decision making as the greatest part of the leader’s job.
If ships are obliged to take on harbor or river pilots – who provide specialized local navigation – when they approach a port, small wonder those steering our ships (leaders) may only be as good as the counsel they seek. This reality could justify the huge target on advisers’ backs
In these high stakes roles, since the quality of their counsel could determine to a significant effect, the success or failure of any organisation’s endeavors.
It’s understandable that the centrality of trust, may drive many leaders to seek refuge, comfort and guidance in blood ties, long-standing allies and friends .
These course unfortunately leads to ranking likeness over competence and the misplacement of absolute trust in outcomes who’s protagonists do not know what to do nor how to do it, in spite of the best intentions. Yes! building trust in the advisory process is essential, but so is maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism.
Leadership and Management advisory is a constructive engagement in a creative and collaborative process not to be reduced to dispensing and accepting of wisdom—it’s a matter of striving, by client and consultant, to better understand problems and craft promising paths forward together.
Advisors bring objective invaluable perspectives from an external vantage point and valuable insight to bear, haven resolved similar problems in the past, or having the requisite problem skills to tackle fresh ones.
Leaders who deny themselves the opportunity of engaging advisors and consultants are stuck playing a lose- lose game of blind man’s buff, since : ‘The man in need of a new thinking tool. But has not yet acquired it, is already paying for it…Charlie Munger”
In conclusion ,we can agree that Leaders are not perfect and Advisors should share in the blame to the degree of their involvement since their reason for being is to improve performance. There are no silver bullet solutions to be had in the high stakes game of life and business. Criticism and feedback are required ingredient in the transformative process of give and take that results in the beat outcome for leader and lead.
There are three things anyone does with advice. They can accept, reject, or note(neutral). The buck stops with the Leader even if some blame may fall on the adviser.
𝕋unde is an aviation management consultant. He assists 🛍 organizations & professionals👮 in ✈️aviation/related industries to 📈 improve performance-efficiency, effectiveness and economics
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