Lehman, AIG Chiefs Should `Man Up,' Stop `Kissing the Mirror'

Executives passing the buck for failures that sank their companies or pushed them to the brink win no sympathy from business leaders and management experts.

``They need to man up and take responsibility,'' said Warren Bennis, founder of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California and author of books including ``Leaders'' and ``On Becoming a Leader.'' ``They kept winning, believing in their own omniscience and thinking they can get away with anything.''

Chief executive officers summoned to Capitol Hill this week by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform didn't point fingers at themselves, drawing criticism from fellow chiefs.

``There are three reasons why companies go out of business and individuals go out of business: No. 1 is arrogance, No. 2 is arrogance and No. 3 is arrogance,'' said Harvey Mackay, chairman and CEO of Minneapolis-based MackayMitchell Envelope Co. and author of ``Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive'' and ``Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt.'' ``They all have chapped lips from kissing the mirror too much.''

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Comments

[Spartan66]

While it's great to see the justifiable outrage about executives needing to make less, it's a shame that we DON'T see as much press devoted to workers needing to make more.

Conservatives would have us think that the economy is not a zero-sum game, and that the pie is big enough for CEOs to get multimillion-dollar payouts and pay everyone else fairly. That's not the way it works, as we have all undoubtedly seen.

A few years ago I asked my divisional president (this was at a Fortune 25 bank whose name - appropriately enough - rhymes with "sh_tty") why our "Exceeds"-rated employees were getting 3% increases and no bonus, while a CEO whose decisions directly drove our stock price into the crapper received a 22% raise and $18 million dollar bonus. The tidal wave of angry, defensive BS that I received in return could have fertilized the Mojave Desert.

When I read Barack's platform, it's great to see a living wage plank in it. Combined with the Democratic majority's tentative first steps toward containing CEO compensation in the bailout package, it's the best opportunity we've had in years to do the right thing on this most American of principles - a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

Obama / Biden 2008

Support the Employee Free Choice Act
http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm

[tonyeastwest]

I can't see Russia from my house but I can see the AIG building from my office window in downtown Manhattan. It's right across the street. Where are the angry mobs? Where are the demonstrators? Dear AIG, please return the money you splurged in Cali to the American people. I'll be checking my mailbox for the check over the next few days. Thank you.

[courageunderfire]

Prison is even too good for these execs, but they should pay back every single cent and then go to prison. Gets these guys in jail, now!

[Barackaroo]

Because CassinoMan is the ultimate con artist. He out conned the cons. Don't they feel foolish??

[ErnestineBass]

WHY is one of AIG's FAILED corporate officers still drawing $1 Million a month as a "consultant"?

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY???????????