A victory for responsibility

 I was interested to hear that President Obama made this statement last night.

"I screwed up...It's important for this administration to send a message that there aren't two sets of rules- you know, one for prominent people, and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes..."

If we are going to have good government, we need to have people running government who can acknowledge their mistakes and take responsibility for them.

When I had a team of people working for me, the ones who drove me crazy were the ones who in their own mind never made mistakes.

I always welcomed anyone who acknowledged a mistake as "a learning experience." All that was important to me was to prevent a recurrence of a mistake and to solve whatever problem needed solving.

Energy used looking for someone to blame was always wasted.

In the same vein, once we agreed on a course of action as a team, complaints from someone who acknowledged the problems but refused to offer up any solutions were not welcomed.

There is nothing worse than complaints about a solution from someone who was not even willing to make an effort to solve a problem.

In my book nothing bad comes from saying "I screwed up."  Even leaders have to say it sometimes.  They usually end up being better leaders for having said it.