"The buck stops here!"

I came across an interesting article the other day that asked the question, "Are we seeing a culture of corruption or a deficit of accountability?"  The article focused on corporate ethics and government ethics in the European Union, but I think the same question could be asked in corporate America too.  There have been a number of very high profile cases of breaches in corporate ethics (for example, the scandals with Enron, World.com, and the fraudulent actions by a number of bankers connected with the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR immediately come to mind) that are now taught in business schools around the country.  Similarly, there is very little confidence or trust in government these days, even outside the European Union.  The point of the article, I think, was this - are we really seeing an epidemic of corruption, fraud, and unethical business and government officials, or alternatively are leaders - in business and in politics - not taking ownership, responsibility, and personal accountability for the decisions that they make? 


President Harry Truman used to have a wooden sign on his desk in the Oval Office that said, "The Buck Stops Here!"  As the story goes, one of President Truman's friends (the U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Missouri at the time) was visiting the Federal Reformatory in El Reno, Oklahoma and saw the sign on the desk of the Warden.  He asked if a sign could be made - it was - and President Truman placed the sign on his desk in October, 1945.  President Truman referenced the sign on a number of occasions.  According to the Truman Library, he referenced the sign during an address at the National War College, stating emphatically, "You know, it's easy for the Monday morning quarterback to say what the coach should have done, after the game is over.  But when the decision is up before you - and on my desk I have a motto which says The Buck Stops Here - the decision has to be made." 


President Truman also referenced the sign again during his Farewell Address in January, 1953, saying "The President - whoever he is - has to decide.  He can't pass the buck to anybody.  No one else can do the deciding for him.  That's his job."  In other words, leaders have a responsibility to make the hard decisions - they need to have the personal accountability to make those decisions and defend them, when necessary.  Just as important, leaders need to base their decisions on personal morals and ethics. 


I have referenced General Dwight D. Eisenhower's letter on D-Day in a previous post (see "Ike's Back-up").  One of the things that General Eisenhower learned - it was something that was drilled to every cadet - while at West Point was that there are only four possible answers to a question from an upperclassmen - "Yes, sir", "No, sir", "No excuse sir", and "Sir I do not understand."  In other words, if the unit fails, it is the leader's responsibility.  There is no excuse for passing the blame on to someone else.  "The buck stops here."


So, I agree that there are definitely leaders out there in politics, business, and probably even health care that make unethical (or at the very least, "questionably ethical") decisions.  However, I would say that more common, our leaders are not taking personal responsibility for their actions and we are not holding them accountable.  We need more of "The Buck Stops Here" mentality and less passing blame (or as the saying goes, "Passing the buck").