At a recent seminar I attended, I noticed
that the more senior a persons’ role is, the more likely they are not to have brought a
notepad/pen, etc. with them - yet they know they're coming to an event where they’ll be exposed to
learning, and so be wanting to keep notes for their reference later.
Perhaps
this is because that due to the seniority of their role, they assume that
others will have taken care of such ’basic’ administrative needs for them (a self-delusion of how important they
think they are)?
And this concerns me - this obvious erosion
of a person not taking responsibility for themselves is surely at odds with
their responsibility for the performance and well-being of others under them?
If they can’t be trusted to make sure they’ve a notepad and pen when going to an event
where they know they’ll need them, then how can we have faith in their competency to
manage significant budgets or large numbers of other people?
There are, thankfully, exceptions I’ve seen to this -
people who’ve been on leadership programmes with the likes of Common Purpose,
people in co-operatives (where one of the defining values is ‘self-responsibility’), and people in
faith-based organisations, where there is a commonality of theological teaching
around proving you can be trusted in the small things before being allowed to
take on the larger responsibilities…
So perhaps we need to challenge people in
authority more; not over the public failings that cost people’s livelihoods, but
before they can get to that stage - check that your boss carries a notepad and
pen with them when out and about…
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