Managers, Leaders and Accountability

It's amazing how, sometimes, it takes a little while for something to settle in. I thought about this the evening of April 16th, which would have been my parent's 50th wedding anniversary, as I started watching the news and hearing more about the tragic shooting that occurred at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia.

I say it this way because, early on, all I remember seeing coming across the email alerts I get was that someone had been shot at some university. Then, over the course of some hours, the alerts kept coming, and the numbers seemed to be increasing, and finally I turned on the television and saw part of what was going on. And, as it started getting later into the evening, the numbers were still going up, and we were finally starting to get some information on the day.

As shocking at that was, over the next couple of days, we started getting more and more information about the perpetrator of this crime, and, it seems, there were many signs there that, had people put them all together, seemed to indicate that this was a young man who was right on the brink of doing something of this sort. The administration had been warned by a teacher; other students had been talking about this person; and he even had a relatively recent history that seemed to suggest that someone should have been watching him even more closely.

This got me to thinking about businesses, and how sometimes these same types of things can happen. They don't have to be as extreme as this circumstance, though it does occur. But, in general, there are those employees who start exhibiting behaviors that just don't seem right, and often other employees and managers see something going on but don't say anything. It reminds me of people who witness crimes but don't want to get involved so they keep it to themselves.

Many years ago, I had an employee who started exhibiting some signs of distress. I had known this person for about 18 months, and when you see someone on a daily basis, if you're paying attention, you'll notice when moods change. This person started having some mood swings; sometimes she'd start crying out of the blue, and other times she'd start yelling without any real provocation.

I watched closely for about a week, which might have been too long, before calling the person into my office for a conversation. She denied anything was going on, and though I told her afterwards that I believed her and that she could talk to me at any time, I also trusted my own instincts. I went down to talk to the human resources director about it, as I'd already mentioned it to the administrator I reported to, and he suggested that maybe we should pursue a course of action that would have this person start going to some employee assistance programs.

After a couple more days of these mood swings that's exactly what we did. We had a meeting with this employee and said that we felt it was in the best interest of her and the department to get this help, and she didn't have a choice in the matter. Of course she was upset and wanted to debate, but I had taken the time to document some of what I had been witnessing, since my office was real close to where the behavior was taking place, and our first interaction counted as a verbal counseling. She did report to the counselors, and, after a few weeks, seemed to have calmed down to a point where the office was back to what seemed like a bit of normalcy. However, she left a few months later, not able to overcome whatever her particular demons happened to be.

As managers or leaders, we have a responsibility and an accountability to be proactive in situations like this. Those hands off managers who never pay any attention to their employees do a disservice to the entire office if they're not keeping up on what's going on with each employee as much as possible. I've been lucky to have not only good relationships with most of my past employees, but with those supervisors and team leaders who I had them reporting to. Because, as there are more and more people one becomes responsible for, and as one's own duties and responsibilities grow, there has to be realization that you can't handle it all. You can't evaluate people you don't even see, or that you only see in passing every once in awhile.

This doesn't only apply to situations like this, however. During a meeting earlier today, I was telling someone how I had been present during a situation where one employee at a director level had said something sexually inappropriate to another employee, who was absolutely stunned. The director thought nothing of it because he said they engaged in conversations of that type all the time. Five minutes later, I went to that employee and asked if she wanted to file a harassment claim against this other director. She said no, but was embarrassed that he had made this statement to her, especially in front of me.

I then went to him and discussed it with him, telling him how inappropriate the comment was and how I'd told her if she wanted to file a harassment claim that I'd be there to support her. He didn't get it initially, saying they always said things like that to each other, so I had to talk to him further about it until he finally understood the issue; he had embarrassed her in front of someone else who'd never been privy to such discussions, and with whom she had a much different relationship with. He did apologize to her, and I assume all was forgiven, as she told me he seemed really contrite when he talked to her.

The truth is that I knew that once I heard the remark I was a part of the incident. I could have acted like nothing had happened, and, if asked later about it, could have said I didn't remember it like that. However, it wouldn't have been the morally correct thing to do, and my reputation with other employees might have been damaged. When one is in some type of position of authority, their only interest should be the well being of all other employees, or anyone else they work with, instead of covering themselves.

Which is why, as we come back to the original tale above, there are going to be consequences of what happened this past Monday. There were mistakes to be sure, and they're not going to be easily forgiven. There will be major investigations; there will be calls for resignations. There is an appearance that leadership somehow let the students and some of the faculty down. I have some opinions on this myself, but I'm not going to give them.

Every person is accountable for their own actions in this world. However, leaders and managers must sometimes take that extra step to be accountable for the lives of those they work and interact with, and, if possible, hope to do the right thing.