[May 26, 2015] When I was 10 years old, I wanted a BB gun more than anything in the world. All my friends had one and my desire led me to hassle my parents until they finally bought me a Daisy Bullseye BB Gun. But it didn’t work … at least until my dad fixed it. Poor quality control had missed a defect in the spring mechanism. The simple lack of oversight in construction had allowed a defective product to be sold to the public.
Fortunately, the defect in my BB gun was not a safety problem or something that cost money to fix. However, one key thing business people learn quickly is that they must provide close quality control to ensure their work is sound and meets all codes and standards or it will cost them their profit or endanger customers. One thing leaders have learned is that when they are not personally involved in checking on how plans are being executed, they risk failure. It is not surprising that a lack of oversight by leaders is the main cause failure in organizations. In the military we say inspect what you expect – if you don’t show your interest to the troops by checking on it, they will stop or do a poor job of it.
When senior leaders fail to ensure proper oversight is in place, failure can be costly. For example, Hawaii’s Obamacare exchange website will soon shut down. The site will not operate past this year and has already cost over $205 million. Another $30 million will be spent to migrate enrollees into the federal system. Hawaii follows failures by Oregon, Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, New Mexico, and Nevada.1 Numerous federal agencies are now investigating these state exchanges where billions have been spent for no effect and yet we find that there was no federal oversight on state exchanges.
There are many other recent examples to include Department of Defense contractor overspending2, Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft problems3, fraudulent charities that bilk people of money4, welfare fraud5, gross waste of taxpayer money by the Department of Homeland Security6, the U.S. Veterans Administration problems in healthcare7, defective car airbags8, etc. Whether public or private, the waste is staggering.
What does it take to fix this problem? First leaders should be given the task, authority, and resources to provide the appropriate level of oversight. While it appears that the U.S. government is the biggest violator of wasteful spending, little has been done to reign in the spending or to hold those responsible accountable for their failure. The U.S. Congress has taken no action to fix the agencies they oversee.
Second, leaders need to have the courage to ask for and obtain that authority and to wisely and responsibly use those resources. Improper oversight is just as bad as no oversight. Proper oversight also means that it is not overbearing or unrealistic. Too much oversight when used inappropriately can stifle creativity and problem solving. There is a point at which this occurs and is difficult to see.
Leaders must be problem solvers. By attacking the problem of the lack of oversight directly and with moral courage, they become part of the solution to help achieve their organization’s mission. Such is the responsibility of great leaders.
[Don’t forget to “Like” the Leader Maker at our Facebook Page.]
————————-
[1] https://www.atr.org/hawaii-s-205-million-obamacare-exchange-implodes
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-isenberg/cant-anyone-at-dod-do-ove_b_800059.html
[5] http://dailysignal.com/2014/12/21/government-audit-finds-welfare-fraud-lack-oversight/
[6] http://cironline.org/reports/homeland-security-marked-waste-lack-oversight-2296
[7] http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-va-delays-20140518-story.html#page=1
[8] http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-airbag-recall-20141020-story.html