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Leadership In Troubled Times
John Battelle of SearchBlog | October 10th, 2008 - 03:20 PM
(17) found this useful. Do you? 
I have something of a rant in me - and it has to do with politics. But this isn’t a partisan rant, it’s a rant about leadership in troubled times.
Like all of you I’ve been riveted by the unfolding financial crisis - as have my employees, all 86 of them. It’s clear they are worried, as are my managers and my investors. The Valley, often immune to milder swings in market conditions, is starting to feel the pain more acutely - earlier this week one of the most respected venture firms in the Valley called all their CEOs to a meeting and told them to start cutting back, conserving cash, and preparing for a long downturn. All of us have to take responsibility for our businesses at this moment.
So when President Bush made a speech today addressing the financial crisis, I made a point of listening. And what I heard really made me angry.
Why? Simple: Nowhere in his remarks did President Bush take responsibility for what is happening.
And taking responsibility is what leaders do in troubled times. Own the problem. Apologize for any actions taken that may have led to the trouble at hand. And then provide, with confidence, a prescription for addressing the screwups.
If leaders don’t take responsibility, we lose faith in those leaders. And in a market like this, a loss of faith, a loss of confidence, means a spiral downward.
My view is simply this: President George Bush needs to apologize for allowing this to happen on his watch, he needs to own the problem, and then, and only then, can the American people have faith and confidence in his administration’s prescriptions for recovery.
My two cents.
paisley | October 10th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
John,
At some point Bush gets tired of accepting all the blame of partisan zealots mistakes..
His “watch” has been pretty much uneffective on most well known policies, for one simple reason.. He doesn’t run congress, he isnt’ responsible for the votes or non-votes in congress, he can veto, he can introduce, but if nothing every gets to his desk to sign or veto, how we call him responsible.. ???
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Nic | October 10th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I think you’re right, John. Leaders (good ones) *should* accept responsibility.
At the same time, I have to agree with Paisley that there’s not a lot of evidence that points at Bush as the sole figure responsible for this mess. So I can see why he’d avoid it.
Still, I’m sure there are things he could’ve done better to avoid this, and should apologize at least for his part in overlooking the signs. Many of these problems have been boiling since the 90s.
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TJ McCue | October 10th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
John, i’ve long been a fan of your blog and your new work here at OPEN. I see the points made above and find myself equally angry. Not afraid, although there’s plenty of fear-mongering being tolerated.
First, on leadership — i’m not picking a fight with Nic or Paisley, their comments have validity. But it doesn’t matter that Mr. Bush doesn’t own the process from cradle to grave — he’s in charge, it is his watch, he needs to suck it up and say he’s responsible. This isn’t about partisanship, this is about leadership and he’s not demonstrating it. History won’t note all the partisan gov battles, it will note that Mr. Bush didn’t stand up and take ownership, whatever part, in the mess.
A leader stands at the front. While he may not have control of all the moving pieces, he has had at many opportunities dramatic influence over the pieces and didn’t exercise it properly. Could he have sat down with Mr. Greenspan (and i don’t have a problem with him, just using him as an example) and said — “look, Alan, are we doing the right things?…” That’s what leadership is — doing the right things. Not just standing around hoping people do things right.
Leaders taking ownership of a problem always creates calm to some degree. One way or the other, we look at Mr. Bush and see a way out or we see further pain — you are right. For him to acknowledge his part, and remind us that as a leader, he’s got responsibility for this mess, that he’s rolling up his sleeves and acknowledging there’s still work to be done by him, for X number more days.
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Jackie Danicki | October 10th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I’m surprised that a seasoned entrepreneur and innovator like you, John, would look to politicians for any kind of prescription for success. They’ve got the blood on their hands, after all. More of the same - regulations, interference and total fiscal irresponsibility - isn’t going to help.
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TJ McCue | October 10th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
One more point — i think the media needs to have their feet held to the fire now and in the future. They make a lot of the crises worse. They are not presenting balanced pieces, in many, many cases. I just heard an NPR story about a local Seattle company — http://www.spinspotter.com and although it doesn’t create any immediate accountability on the media, it does have the potential to change the game. Disclosure: i have absolutely no relationship to this new company.
I guess the media don’t realize how seriously they shoot themselves in the foot by not painting some of the good parts (and i know there are not many right now) and the balance. The worse you paint the picture, without balance, the faster you freak out your advertisers and revenue base…
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John Battelle of SearchBlog | October 10th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
@Paisely - The buck stops at his desk. It’s not always fair if you are the leader, but you still have to take responsibility if things don’t go right.
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vanderleun | October 10th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Oh, puhlease. Don’t you think that the primary mantra running through Bush’s head these days is, “Four more months…. then I’m done with this crapola.
As anyone who has been following this with a smidgen of attention knows, the blame can be laid at a very wide, wide range of people of all parties.
Glad John feels better, but it really is just a rant. Nothing more.
We’ve got to get over the sloppy notion that when things get bad someone somewhere owes us a frickin’ apology.
Time to cowboy up. Bush is not going to be your bad, bad man much longer. Soon you’ll have a new bad, bad man to blame.
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vanderleun | October 10th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
By the way, do you know what the sign on Truman’s desk said on the side facing Truman?
It said, “I’m from Missouri. Show me.”
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John Battelle of SearchBlog | October 10th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
@vanderleun - Did not know that about the sign, that’s cool. On your other point, I diplomatically disagree. I think great leaders take responsibility for the direction of that which he or she is responsible for. The President is in charge of the country. And therefore, needs to take responsibility.
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Mel | October 10th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
@vanderlun - No, the complete cause of this crisis didn’t happen under Bush. It built up over time under different congresses and administrations.
Nonetheless, it blew up under his watch.
Just this week I dealt with a 7 figure customer that had an issue that had been bounced around between my company’s divisions, all with a “it’s not our problem” mentality.
She was ticked, and had been to a couple of high level managers about this.
The first thing I did was to apologize for her getting bounced around. The second thing I did was assure her that her issue would end with me. No more bouncing around … I’ll get it corrected.
It took a couple of days, but I got it fixed. This ticked off customer was now happy and cracking jokes on the phone.
No, the financial mess did not develop entirely during the Bush administration, but it blew up on his watch … as well as the watch of a Democratically controlled Congress.
They all need to man-up, swallow their pride, and apologize to this country.
And we citizens need to do a better job of holding elected official’s feet to the fire.
… and I’m in Missouri (but I’m an Okie by birth).
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Miki | October 11th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Why would you expect Bush (or anyone) to suddenly change and take responsibility when they haven’t previously done so?
In general, I’m not a cynical person, In fact, I’ve always said that I’d rather be a chump than a cynic, but I also believe in two old adages,
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
The first time it’s a mistake, the second time it’s experience and the third time it’s stupidity.
I try very hard to avoid the third time.
But time and experience have taken their toll and my cynicism has increased over the years—especially in politics.
We have no leaders, let alone statesmen, just ideologues, elected by like-minded ideologues, who care only about getting reelected, bringing government money back to their constituency and making lucrative connections in the event they aren’t reelected or are caught by term limits.
In most elections I find myself going to the polls, holding my nose and voting for whomever I see as the least offensive candidate—the one I believe will do the least damage—and maybe even buy us a bit more time to find real solutions.
But I don’t hold my breath.
Solutions mean going against entrenched interests—the same interests that pony up the money needed to win the next election.
And so it goes.
Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”
Sad to say we’re at the same level that created them—if not lower.
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MBleu | October 11th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I totally agree with John and TJ McCue. The #1 Job of a leader is to Lead. Stand at the Front and have the stomach to make the hard decisions. We have not had that kind of leadership for a long time. Will John McCain or Barack Obama? I hope so.
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"www.ShawnDrewry.com" | October 11th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I doubt he’ll apologize anyways , even if he felt responsible.
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Anita Campbell | October 13th, 2008 at 7:40 am
I agree that ALL leaders need to stand up and take responsibility. That includes the Democratic leaders in Congress. What about asking them to stand up and apologize, too?
They all let us down, in my view.
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vanderleun | October 13th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Yes, it is time we all asked ourselves, “Are we better off now than we were TWO years ago?”
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