September 19, 2008

“You need to know that I have no currency in excuses.”

“Well then, how about apologies?  Are they accepted?”

The grilling was in full gear.  The gas valve feeding the flame was wide open and the heat was becoming somewhat unbearable for the finance manager getting roasted.  For those of us in the room watching and waiting, it had become a bit embarrassing.

The senior executive in charge was being more than a tad “over the top” in his belligerence and the young man presenting his business area financials was less than prepared for a meeting of this importance.  The conversation, as they say, started out poorly and quickly deteriorated.  Communication had effectively stopped.  Questions were being yelled at the young man and before he could attempt an answer, another bevy of questions came his way.

In the interest of time and trying to invoke the mercy rule, I suggested that we table the review of this business area and move on to the next one on the agenda.  Everyone seemed to be amenable to the idea and the young man began his inglorious exit from the front of the room to his seat in the audience.  Determined to apply one last torching, the executive, calling finance manager by name, mocked the presentation yet again and demanded, “You need to know that I have no currency in excuses.”  Not knowing what to say in an awkward situation now made almost unbearable, the feeble reply came, “Well then, how about apologies?  Are they accepted?”

We all painfully listened to a diatribe about how the only thing worse than excuses were apologies.  While Michael Jordan may have been right when he said “there are no excuses”, we should also remember that there are feelings and consideration and lessons to be learned.

Lessons are not typically learned in an atmosphere of humiliation.