A Few Smart Leaders
[Guest post by DRJ]
How much free time is a chief executive allowed during a time of crisis? When it comes to President Obama, apparently quite a bit:
“… here are some of the things the president was doing instead of meeting with the company during the 58 days since the spill began: playing six rounds of golf, chilling with the Yankees, meeting with his “buddy” Bono, singing with Paul McCartney, raising money for Barbara Boxer, calling Rahm Emanuel to set up more golf time, vacationing with his family, dining with Michelle on a date, and doing something involving Kelly Clarkson.”
He also found time to attend yesterday’s baseball game, but he showed restraint by not participating in the Wave. [EDIT: Obama also managed to slip in another round of golf today!]
However, it’s not okay for BP CEO Tony Hayward to take one day off to attend a glitzy yacht race.
Sometimes it seems like the leaders working on this problem aren’t very smart.
— DRJ
The worst trangression was the McCartney event – not for the honor itself, but for his incredibly disgraceful and contemptuous comments. Of course Mr. Awesome said nothing about that, and joined in with his tin – ear on “Hey Jude.” I’ll never feel sorry for Sir Paul being taken in by a nasty, gold digging harpy again – just desserts IMHO.
Dmac (3d61d9) — 6/19/2010 @ 3:03 pmOr as I like to call her…Yoko Uno
Gazzer (d79016) — 6/19/2010 @ 3:22 pmanyone expecting “smart leadership” from the Indonesian Imbecile is dumber than him, and that’s dumb.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 6/19/2010 @ 3:22 pmyachting is not good
Specialist Haiku (fb8750) — 6/19/2010 @ 3:24 pmgolf however is no big deal
hypocrisy wins
I am beginning to feel sorry for Hayward.
Patricia (160852) — 6/19/2010 @ 3:45 pmSo, BP is finding out that there is a huge double standard with leftards. Welcome to Obamaworld where nothing can go wrong….go wrong…go wrong.
PatriotRider (8d9a6f) — 6/19/2010 @ 3:49 pmI don’t think anyone decent would begrudge either Obama or Hayward time off if either of them were demonstrably adequate at his high-profile, high-paid, incredibly powerful job.
Beldar (a6fff6) — 6/19/2010 @ 4:18 pmIt’s not clear to me that Mr. Haywood was only watching the race; he does not show on the crew lists, but owners do not always show there. He might have been one of those doing the racing (his boat came in 4th in her class.)
htom (412a17) — 6/19/2010 @ 4:29 pmHayward was relieved of his responsibilities in the gulf by BP on Friday. No matter what he was doing on Saturday it would have no effect on the gulf.
gahrie (ed7a50) — 6/19/2010 @ 4:31 pmBP clarifed that Hayward remains in charge but not of day-to-day operations:
DRJ (d43dcd) — 6/19/2010 @ 4:48 pmI would venture a guess that even rounding the Isle of Wight, Hayward was in closer contact with what was going on on-the-ground in the Gulf than Teh Won has ever been, even when he was in the Gulf.
AD - RtR/OS! (4ae013) — 6/19/2010 @ 5:09 pmI would think a good CEO doesn’t have to be sitting on top of one issue 24/7. If he/she did, there would be a hundred other things getting no attention.
Anything to distract from spending time looking at the one.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/19/2010 @ 6:06 pmA good CEO delegates authority and takes responsibility, and then doesn’t need to micro-manage his competent subordinates. A bad CEO chooses poor subordinates, retains authority, delegates responsibility, and has to micro-manage those poor subordinates to protect himself.
htom (412a17) — 6/19/2010 @ 9:39 pmThat’s true, but I think the normal idea of executive governance and delegation goes out the window when there’s a major crisis like this. I think people expect more hands-on leadership and it’s a reasonable expectation.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 6/19/2010 @ 9:42 pm