According to Wikipedia, accountability is “the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies”.  It’s way past appropriate to hear someone take accountability for the collapse of their company under their leadership in the midst of this mess.  Or, at least have a board hold one of these failed leaders to a higher level of accountability by showing someone out the door.  This blame the economy excuse simply does not resonate anymore.

I came across a quote attributed to Alex Rodriguez in an interview where, in admitting to steroid use, he justified it because he felt the need to live up to the expectation of a $250 million contract.  Really?  So it is the contract’s fault?  Sounds like we are supposed to understand a justification defense instead of an accountability statement.  I do not need to know why he used steroids.  I do not even care that he used the steroids.  It would have been more a demonstration of his accountability if he had said, I did something very wrong, very inappropriate, and something that was very contradictory for a responsible athlete.  That would have represented his accountability.

An example of accountability is found in the Saturday Wall Street Journal.   This article talks about how the marines took accountability for the crash of a jet in a San Diego neighborhood in December 2008.  The marines launched an investigation and openly, publicly criticized 12 marines responsible for their actions that would have helped avoid the crash that killed four people from one family.  Essentially these people’s military careers are over.  They were held accountable and the marines accepted accountability for this event.  End of story.

Not to confuse the economy with the real life and death tragedy of the San Diego crash; however, there are lives being affected every day in the midst of this economic meltdown and no none has yet to take accountability for their irresponsible, greedy, short sided policies and actions that facilitated this mess.  To quote Peggy Noonan in her article,  “nowhere did we see a board come out and say: ‘This is what happened, these are the decisions these particular people made, and this was the result. They are no longer a part of our organization.”  It is only appropriate that those who directed this mess be held accountable.  We are definitely missing some accountability here.  It is about time somebody was held accountable.