Leadership – Do you Believe in Second Chances?

Everyone today expects leaders to have the answers and to solve the huge problems of the day. We expect them to solve for pandemics, economic chaos, furloughs, lay-offs, and ill-timed resignations and job losses. We expect leaders to solve huge and lingering social problems. We expect them to solve the myriad of problems challenging our businesses and organizations today – from location closings to supply chain issues, from the economic challenges created by social distancing and a volatile marketplace, to technology and infrastructure issues, and from customer issues to workplace squabbles. We then put the most successful leaders on pedestals and toast their successes. And we often toss those who can’t or didn’t aside. I am all for toasting the successful. I am not so much for tossing the others aside. 

We rarely allow our leaders to fail or fall short of expectations today, or in many cases simply be human, in spite of a wealth of redeeming qualities and characteristics.  We often hold leaders to an idealized and all too often; unrealistic set of standards, few can live up to in the complicated times we are living in. We expect our leaders to do no wrong.  We expect them to at least metaphorically “walk on water.”  We expect the wisdom of Solomon. We expect them to see around corners and through pandemics. 

If a leader fails – not walking on the water but falls into the water or when he or she makes a hard decision inconsistent with our way of thinking - it is more than likely today that we will feel as if they personally failed us and perhaps even did so to spite us. To make matters worse we often excuse ourselves from any sense of personal accountability for helping to solve the larger problem that they were grappling with on our account. We fail to extend them the same grace that we would wish for when if we had been in their position and we had failed at something or fallen short of expectation.

Sadly, many of our business and organizational leaders who make honest mistakes today are not getting the benefit of the doubt or a second chance in this turned upside-down and inside-out climate. For various reasons; professional, political, personal, and a host of reasons including the company’s image or brand, in this hypersensitive, cancel-culture oriented society we seem to be tossing honest, able people aside with few real cares – as if the pandemic and associated economics made it okay.  We have lost our humanity. Many are failing to exercise even the most basic levels of compassion; compassion they would wish themselves afforded in similar circumstances. 

Today more than ever we need good people, we need good leaders, we need leaders who tried mightily but perhaps fell short. We need those who are willing to make mistakes for the right reasons. We need leaders who are willing to fail fast, to learn fast. 

I believe we are at a crossroads today, the need for real leadership, for real leaders has never been greater. We have huge challenges ahead of us as a nation, and even more profoundly on a global scale. We do not enjoy the luxury of throw away leaders, we cannot treat leaders as if they are an expendable commodity. 

We need our leaders still in place to provide second chances to good leaders caught in a crisis. 

We need men and women who lead today’s most successful companies and organizations to be willing to budget the resources necessary and quite frankly demonstrate the courage and will to retain, retrain, or reclaim fallen leaders. We need our current leaders, those who are still standing, to take a chance on good people by acting on the possibility that good people caught up in the crossfires of life still have much to give.