Accountability

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“The best kind of accountability on a team is peer-to-peer. Peer pressure is more efficient and effective than going to the leader, anonymously complaining, and having them stop what they are doing to intervene.”
-Patrick Lencioni

To say that I have been disappointed with people this week would be an understatement. Perhaps it was a situation that happened professionally, a situation involving roommates, a situation with my healthcare professional and, of course, a certain Grand Jury report coming out of Pennsylvania. It hasn’t been a good week and I don’t like writing about bad weeks.

I’d much rather be writing about awesome stuff, but I can’t bring myself to ignore some very raw and very troubling realities that exist in the world right now. So, I will take this time to highlight some of the lessons learned, even if they have been hard lessons.

In one particular situation, I learned about a scandalous action taken by somebody that I don’t know well yet admire a lot. This individual is an authoritative figure in a position of power. I had casually asked him how he got to where he is, and quickly found out that it wasn’t honestly. Long story short, he shared with me that he was not forthcoming with his employer while applying for his current position. The employer still doesn’t know. I was appalled.

I will admit that I am naïve. My thinking, by default, is that people are honest and that they have earned what they have. Those that haven’t – those that take advantage of “the system,” the less fortunate, the less privileged – don’t get very far with me. I guess what really surprised me most was that I really admired this individual and got caught up in what he was able to do. That he got there dishonestly was very, very deflating. Maybe its even like finding out that your childhood hero is really a self-absorbed asshole.

I really wanted to get a hold of this guy’s boss and tell him exactly what he told me. I was very close. OK… I still am. I sought after the advice from some of my closest friends and confidants because I was so conflicted. I felt injustice. I felt unfairness. I felt anger.

The advice I got was not what I wanted to hear. The easy thing to do to handle the situation would have been to drop the bomb on his boss. Maybe things would have blown up, maybe nothing would have happened, I don’t know. Pretty sure this guy would know who ratted him out, so I would have to deal with that, but somehow, I rationalized that would still be better. Maybe it is. I guess I still don’t know.

My friends and advisors have quoted Matthew 18:15: “If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately.” Get him to take responsibility of his own actions and to hold himself accountable to them. If he doesn’t, “take one or two others along.” All of this is supposed to be done before going to the Church… or the authority over your “brother.” That, of course, means confronting somebody on their wrongdoing. This is not easy, is uncomfortable and I’d really rather not do it. Of course, if roles were reversed and I made a mistake, I would rather somebody bring it to my attention before bringing it to the attention of my employer. I’m not free of error, either.

I feel like accountability is needed in the world right now. The situations I’ve been involved with this week demand correction. Things happened that shouldn’t have. My desire to have justice served, however, may be just as unjust if I have it my way. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty and everyone deserves a chance to right their wrong.

I guess I’ll see this guy myself. I don’t know how to do that yet, but I’ll figure it out. Ultimately, I need to hold myself accountable to my own standard of accountability.

There are a lot of leaders in the world who need to do the same thing, too.

...and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!!