i-TFTD #277: On Owning Up to Decisions

#277-1. These days Wall Street bankers sound like the lady who killed her husband and then asked for mercy because she was a widow.
-Nitin Desai in his article, Welfare for the Wealthy, on business-standard.com, Feb 19, 2009

#277-2. At most companies, people spend 2 percent of their time recruiting and 75 percent managing their recruiting mistakes.
-Richard Fairbank, CEO, Capital One, quoted by Harvard prof. Jim Heskett in his article, Why Can't We Figure Out How to Select Leaders?, at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6103.html, Feb 5, 2009

#277-3. Difficulty in reaching consensus rises with the number of 'stakeholders' and usually means the end result is too many 'holders' and too little 'stake'.
-Dean Procter in his article, Collaboration Does Not Always Lead To Innovation, on FinExtra.com, Nov 23, 2008

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A lot of people at the helm of banking and the US economy are talking about learning lessons from the past but their actions belie their stated intent.

Part of the problem is that there are no foolproof, universal methods of selection. Another problem is that the people who have the deciding power on critical appointments may not be the most effective judges.

I can involve my team and seek inputs from many other peers but I should never confuse such a participative and inclusive approach with my decision-making responsibility. Once a decision is taken and acted upon, I have to own the consequences.