The Price of Leadership

The Bounty has been lost. . . again.  I first heard about the problems the Bounty was having early Monday morning as the initial reports came out and I followed the progress of her loss and the rescue of most of her crew with rapt fascination.  It’s an interesting quirk of human nature that I seemed to feel worse over the loss of her two crew members than I did for the dozens who died in the Caribbean as a result of the same hurricane, but that is a “Penn” for a different time.  Charitably I will say that was the result of my time at sea.

The interesting thing for me is the people who were on dry land, often behind a desk who have questioned the decisions of Captain Robin Walbridge.  The tragic loss of the vessel and at least one crewmember will probably be laid at the feet of Captain Walbridge. How often do we hear the term “Captain error” or “Pilot error”?  And that is the price of leadership. 

Sometimes leaders make the right decisions and sometimes they make the wrong decisions, but we have entrusted them to make those decisions and until we have stood in their shoes we are only guessing at how we would have reacted.  Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.