How’s your achilles?

How surprised was I really?!?

Media in Canada today are swarming around the story of 5 now professional hockey players being required to surrender to police in London, Ontario regarding a sexual assault investigation from 2018.

In the United States the ongoing exposure of cover ups and abuses within the Southern Baptist Churches are continuing to prompt revulsion and calls for justice.

Like you, I’ve had the experience of people I knew and admired being accused, investigated, and (in some cases) confessing or being convicted for their exploitative actions.

In so many cases, especially when the accused is someone I like, there is a sense of shock or even disbelief when I first hear the allegations. Sadly, the sheer volume of incidents is now leaving me discouraged, suspicious, and almost expectant that at any time another hero will fall.

Here’s the thing; in the cases I’m most familiar with I can look back and see some concerning signs long before anything was revealed. Hindsight is far from 20/20, but retrospect often shows some evidence I diminished, explained away, or was hesitant to address.

(To be clear, in none of the situations I’m referring to was I in any position of authority or very close to the abuser. I’m just reflecting on being able to look back and see patterns I missed in real time).

The legend of Achilles rings true to me. In that story the hero was dipped into the river Styx by his mother, rendering him invulnerable to any weapon except for the spot on his heel where she held him during the immersion. That vulnerability became fatal when a blind archer struck him with an arrow in that secret point of weakness.

We all have weaknesses. In most cases those don’t lead us into criminal or moral offenses, but they do often expose us to compromises or failures that undermine our character and leadership.

When I consider the leaders, both the prominent and the largely unknown, who have lost their credibility through moral failures there is usually a pattern of behaviour preceding the end. Their vulnerable achilles wasn’t really a secret.

It may be that questions were raised, even investigated, and dismissed by the leader or others in positions of responsbility. But often there are people who had concerns but didn’t know what to do about it or how to do it.

We need to do better.

I’ve said this before, but it’s time for me to renew my commitment to asking leaders I’m connected with where they are vulnerable and what they are doing to ensure that their exposed achilles weaknesses are being protected for their own sake as well as everyone they lead and connect with.

And I need to ensure there are some people who know and love me enough to ask me the awkward, direct, and hard questions about where I could be tempted to violate my own values.

Let’s not add to the stories of hurt people, and let’s not lose our leadership to our own areas of vulnerability.

Contact me if I can be helpful to you and/or your organization.

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