The Buck Stops Here

According to the Truman library website, President Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk in the White House that said, "The Buck Stops Here." Not sure if the fact that this particular sign was made in the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma has any meaning, but Truman was known to quote the phrase from time to time, and its truth is one of the heaviest aspects of leadership.

Over our years of Salvation Army ministry, Larry and I learned this lesson all too often. When the nursery school teacher was accused of child abuse twenty-five years ago, it was our responsibility, and although the allegation was unfounded, there were many concerned parents and sleepless nights in its wake. When a trusted employee stole money, we had to take action even in the midst of our sense of betrayal. And, closer to home, when a car crashed through the walls of the Kroc Center or the spraypark malfunctioned on the hottest day of the year, the buck stopped with us. Sure, we had supportive staff that helped a great deal, but at the end of the day, it was still our problem and our responsibility regardless.

That's why recent headlines have trumpeted the scandals in the Justice Department and the IRS as belonging to the Obama White House. Prior to the past week, media sources would have been hard-pressed to put together a sentence that included the phrases Tea Party, Associated Press phone taps, and Benghazi attack, but that was before the ill-advised IRS profiling added its punch to the scandal list of 2013.

The Benghazi deaths were tragic, and it's questionable as to whether any policy decisions would have - or could have - prevented those assassinations. But in the other two scenarios, they began with reasonable questions: how do you identify groups using tax exempt status to potentially break the law (a task of the IRS), and how do you deal with a pattern of leaks, potentially dangerous to national security?

The question about leaks reminds me of the children's song, "There's a Hole in the Bucket." Henry discovers a problem - there's a hole in the bucket. "So fix it, dear Henry," Liza tells him. But when Henry tries to fix it with a straw, the straw is too long, so he returns to Liza for advice. When he tries to cut the straw with a knife, the knife is too dull, so he returns to Liza for advice. When he tries to sharpen the knife with a stone, the stone is too dry, so he needs to wet it with water from - you guessed it - the bucket. But there's a hole in the bucket . . .

Sometimes, when you're Liza, you simply want Henry to take care of the bucket and let you do your own work. You hire people you trust to do a job and assume the systems in place will provide adequate oversight. But, as anyone who has been in management of any kind knows only too well, sometimes people can't be trusted, and sometimes systems fail or get circumvented.

Yet when your job is to be the president of the United States or the mayor of West, Texas, the president of the Ohio State University or the principal of the local elementary school, or the Pope or the parish priest, the buck stops on your desk. Even if what happens isn't your fault personally, it is still your responsibility.

Over the years, Larry and I would look at each other from time to time and jokingly say, "That's why we make the big bucks." Yet for most of us, civic or community leadership isn't about the big bucks (or lack of them) - it's as Woodrow Wilson said, “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” Keeping that perspective, even when there's a leak in the bucket, is where the buck stops, no matter the shape of your office.