Sunday, May 28, 2006

Lessons in leadership Tom Peters hits the nail with his head by finding a two-sentence summary of the primary lesson from the Enron scandal and trial: Almost All You Need To Know About Leadership. This, from Enron juror Freddy Delgado, an elementary school principal: "I can't say that I don't know what my teachers were doing in the classroom. I am still responsible if a child gets lost." [The Tom Peters Weblog] I long ago concluded that what so-called leaders like Skilling and Lay did not understand is the real reason why CEOs get huge salaries: it's not that they're worth that much money because they make profits for the company; no, it's because the responsibility is so huge, and the downside so devastating. When executives like these screw up, they and their companies and their employees and investors stand to lose everything, so the incentive to not screw up has to be big. That's the only justification that I can see for multimillion dollar pay packages. If a highly-paid executive claims to not be responsible for what happened on his watch, he should resign and return all his compensation. They're paid big bucks to accept that responsibility; if they don't want it, don't take it. 10:52:42 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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