#Leadership in the news – What happens the organization’s secrets are no longer secret?
Recently, WikiLeaks posted “thousands” of pages of CIA documents on its website. This is not only a huge blow the US Intelligence Community but to the business community as well. What happens when what was on the inside is now on the outside?
When any organization has its operational secrets revealed to outsiders there is going to be trouble. Internal and External trouble.
When an organization finds that it has been compromised returning to business as usual is the furthest thing on anyone’s mind. It was business as usual that created the situation the CIA is having at this very moment. In recent history, it is business as usual that created many similar situations for too many government and private sector organizations.
Business as usual is not what any organization or leader can tolerate. Complacency is what happens when an organization or leader settles with business as usual. It is quite obvious that being complacent is no longer tolerated in the 21st Century.
How does one curtail business as usual from becoming business as usual?
Easy. You encourage innovation. You encourage innovation from all internal and external stakeholders. It is when everyone buys in to the call for innovation and change then can true change take place. The thing is that innovation must be rooted in change. A climate of change is what will keep the organization or leader from repeating the past mistakes.
What about when things start falling apart?
A leader worth is weight in gold will go out of his way to make certain everyone grows from this. This is not the time to be pointing fingers. Now is not the time to blame others. A true leader will step up and tackle the problem head on. A true leader will never imagine throwing anyone under the bus when a problem arises. Especially, if the problem is global crisis problem a leader that knows how to be a leader will do everything to not only stop exacerbating the problem but will heaven and earth to prevent it from happening again. Then and only then should a leader begin to deal with the causes and those responsible.
What about when things fall apart, again?
Now don’t get me started on this. There is no excuse for any organization or leader to have another break down in operations. As the old adage goes, “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.” To put it in simple terms, there is a zero tolerance policy when it comes to repeating mistakes (intentional or unintentional).
Leaders have no wiggle room when it comes to repeating any mistake. This is especially critical when the mistake comes from complacency or from refusing to make, put in place, and sustain change if for nothing but for the sake of preventing a recurrence of the one thing that was the reason for the change in the first place.
Title: Federal criminal probe being opened into WikiLeaks’ publication of CIA documents
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/08/politics/wikileaks-cia-investigation/index.html
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