I recently watched a hearing between the Secret Service Director and Congress. It was extremely heated and I knew that I was going to write about this interaction in a future article. Let me refresh your memory. A few agents drank alcohol at a retirement party. After leaving the party, they crashed their car into the white house. It was on international news for several days.
Congress asked important and tough questions to the Secret Service Director and he repeatedly skirted all issues. Congressmen and women actually said, “What are you going to do about it?” The Director said, “I first need to get all of the facts.” Several members of Congress said the same thing, “Why not fire the agents on the spot? You need to make the hard decisions.” The Director was very nervous and it almost sounded like he was covering up the “real story.”
The bottom line is that there was a huge communication breakdown in the Department. Supposedly the Director did not hear about this incident for a few days. I ask the question, why didn’t he hear about this sooner?
Reasons why there are communication breakdowns:
- Fear of retribution
- Covering-up for each other
- Dysfunctional cultural barriers
- The wrong fit for roles and job responsibilities
- Not knowing who to go to for answers
- Unclear expectations
- Too much red tape
We still don’t know the facts about this embarrassing situation. There have been several mistakes in the last few years and it is obvious that leadership is weak. … [Continue reading]
