When Walking the Talk Is Impossible — Tip of the Week

We like leaders — executives, managers, supervisors — who “walk the talk.” It’s an inherent part of leadership. If an executive can’t or won’t do it, then it’s asking a lot for fellow executives and subordinate employees to respect, much less follow, what the executive says.

The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church (here and here) is or should be the CEO’s CEO. Pope Benedict XVI has, however, found walking the talk impossible when it comes to the child sex abuse scandal that has ravaged the Church. Benedict’s latest talk in the form of a letter to Catholics in Ireland is a prime example.

The Pope apologizes, expressing shame and remorse. If he were talking about one incident of priestly misconduct that had recently occurred, that might be sufficient. He is, however, talking about: hundreds, perhaps thousands, of incidents of sexual abuse of children by priests and the lengthy cover-up of of what the Pope himself calls “sinful and criminal.”

An empty apology is hardly walking the talk. Bishops and other church leaders who shifted abusive priests from parish to parish and who covered it up  by sending the priests to counseling instead of jail aren’t disciplined or fired. Can you imagine what would happen in any other institution where a ring of child abusers had been discovered? Heads would role. The mother of all house cleanings would occur. No one would rest until the taint had been expunged.

Apparently, that’s impossible as far as the Church and the Pope are concerned. Taking decisive action would decimate the Church’s leadership and would destroy lifelong friendships. It’s just too much for the organization and its leader to bear. An employer and its CEO should never find themselves in that kind of situation. If they do, the more talking that’s done without concomitant walking, the worse any messy situation becomes.