Don’t Let Me Down

Posted on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 by Frank Roche

I was let down last night. Bigtime. That was a big fall.

[Here's where I talk about U.S. politics for 30 seconds. You may want to skip this part.]
I remember walking around Philadelphia the night of the national election in 2008, listening to horns honking. People were crying and hugging. We had elected Barack Obama, and he promised us “change you can believe in.” Part of that change was stopping the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One year later, many of us are stunned. Last night, the President announced that the U.S. will send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan at an incremental cost of $30 billion per year. And by the way, President Obama recently won the Nobel Peace Prize.

You can’t win the Peace Prize and create war. You just can’t.
[Okay, it's safe to come out now. No more politics.]

Here’s the lesson for today: If you’re a manager, don’t make promises you can’t keep. If you show yourself as an inspirational leader, know that if you let people down it’s a big fall. The words of William Blake come to mind:

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. — William Blake

User Comments

Angela Risner

Dec 2nd, 2009

Well, at least you’re paying attention. The majority of my friends who voted for him haven’t paid attention to him since the election and are stunned when I inform them as to what’s going on.

I’m glad that his true self is being revealed to everyone.
fran melmed

Dec 2nd, 2009

i was one of those standing outside of the national constitution center to hear obama’s acceptance speech. while i disagree w/increasing the troops, i don’t think we should be stunned. he campaigned on increasing troops in afghanistan and making it a central focus for his administration: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/20/obama.afghanistan/.

some of his challenge — and of any inspirational leader — is living up to expectations. in obama’s case, i don’t think there was ever a chance. as individuals, our emotions were so joyous and our desires so huge. as a country, our needs so vast. i’ll still consider my cup half full.

f
Josh

Dec 2nd, 2009

I would re-word the lesson to be learned.

The lesson for managers to learn here has to do with clarity and congruence.

A part of being a leader (and not all managers are such) is casting vision. When Obama campaigned on the slogan of “change you can believe in” he was speaking inspirationally and appealing to emotion. This slogan was a key part of the vision he was casting. However, the slogan was not always directly tied to anything of substance. Therefore, the risk he ran was that people would develop their own ideas of what “hope and change” actually meant and this would set him up for likely failure (at least in their eyes).

And, that’s exactly what happened in this case. His lack of clarity in his vision opened him up to failure in the eyes of his supporters. (Speaking politically for two seconds, I think Obama and staff knew this and didn’t care. They knew they had gold with that slogan and all they needed was to secure the office and subsequent power. Any future fallout could be managed.)

That’s not the end of the lesson though, because as Fran pointed out in the above comment, one of the campaign points addressed the (already on-going) war in Afghanistan and the need for increased troop levels. The problem with that is that it was incongruent with his message and platform of change. (Again, though, I would bet they knew this but there were other stronger reasons for not instituting change in this area, at least immediately.)

So the real lesson? Leading organizations is fraught with risk of losing people’s support and faith. Clarity is important, but if you choose against it then engage risk management for future potential fallout. Congruence is important, but if you choose against it then engage clarity again and let people know why.
John H.

Dec 2nd, 2009

Does Obama get some leadership credit for doing what he thinks is right regardless of the popularity of the decision? In that context his predecessor gets the same credit.
Josh

Dec 2nd, 2009

>> John, I think he might if he said as much and spoke directly to his supporters on the issue of this being incongruent with his slogan and platform. At this point, though, that is merely an assumption of his motives and reasoning for the decision.

Also, I realized another great lesson in all of this for leaders and managers…their responsibility for (or at least great ability to influence) team morale. If my boss told me we were going to take an existing project that was in trouble, invest fewer resources than the project experts requested for success, and set an arbitrary end date for the project regardless of its outcome, I would have a difficult time mustering any care or energy to see the project through to success.
Frank Roche

Dec 3rd, 2009

@Fran I’m still giving benefit of the doubt. But I must say I had high expectations…and you’re right, they were hard to meet. When they weren’t, that hurt.
Frank Roche

Dec 3rd, 2009

@Josh Nicely framed: clarity and congruence. Nicely said.
Frank Roche

Dec 3rd, 2009

@Josh, yep it’s my morale that’s down on this topic. Even though I knew about Afghanistan, I was thinking it would be different, especially after the Peace Prize. Sadly, I wasn’t.

And when leaders don’t explain fully, that a huge hit.