If our civilian & police leadership faced the career realities our military leadership did, maybe we’d have a better civilian leadership.
Command
“To trust a man with the lives of other is a grave thing. Only three things make it work. Authority; responsibility; accountability.
Authority is the root of command. We delegate it only for a time, only in exercise of an office, only as defined by custom and law. never as an individual, never for very long, never as if by right, never without bounds.
Responsibility defines what a man is trusted with, with the ship, with the conn, whatever. So it’s all clear up front, and everybody understands his duty.
To be accountable means to be subject to justice. To punishment, if you will. If you fail your trust–are derelict in your duty, misuse you power, make a professional error–you will pay a price.
In our profession, this accountability is absolute. When a naval officers accepts authority, he knows he will answer for the actions of his ship, whether or not he is directly and personally responsible in the way a civilian court would understand. For it is his responsibility to know and govern all that goes on aboard her, her flaws, her limitations, as well as her strengths.
If error occurs, no matter whose, the fault is rightfully and inevitably his. Each commander knows this and accepts it as part of the job. No previous service, however meritorious, can make up for it. “
-David Poyer, The Circle; 1992
Patrick @ Popehat is willing to extend the same to corporate leadership. I can’t say I disagree entirely.