Welcome to part one of a two part series on BIG leadership mistakes. It features Dr. Bev Scott, head of Boston’s public transportation system (MBTA), and Governor Charlie Baker. One of them just resigned.
We begin with events surrounding Dr. Scott’s leadership suicide.
Introducing Bev Scott
I’ve met Bev Scott and she impressed me as a leader with an inspirational mission. Transportation is the THE HOW. Her mission, THE WHAT, is to improve people’s lives by providing access to employment, health care, education, culture and recreation.
Dr. Scott has a PhD in Political Science and a number of awards for her accomplishments as a senior leader of public transportation systems in four major cities.
Leadership Suicide – The Situation
In early February 2105, winter storms left Boston under six feet of snow. The city’s aged public transportation system, already in dire need of repairs and upgrades, was debilitated. Riders were stranded in the cold for hours – waiting, pushing and shoving their way onto trains and buses – struggling to get to and from work. Some got stuck on stalled trains and had to march the distance on foot, in the cold. The People were angry. At several points Scott declared total service shut downs due to safety concerns.
She was blamed and ultimately thrown under the bus by a number of public officials, members of the public, the press; and Governor Charlie Baker. Her staff, however, gave her an official vote of confidence. Scott’s earlier work on management style, with a leadership psychologist, seems to have paid off. (Note to self: Leadership psychologist was paid $144,000. Raise fees.)
Leaders, however, also need to manage up and out.
When things don’t work as they’re supposed do, The People get angry. Leaders, especially political leaders, usually find someone to blame. That someone gets fired or is asked to step down. The People feel better, temporarily, although the real problem, typically a systems issue, hasn’t been addressed.
As a leader in the public or private sector, knowing the rules of play for this chapter will help you avoid leadership suicide. Even if you get the boot, playing by the rules will ensure you recover from the fall.
Rules of the Game
I can’t speak to Bev Scott’s operational management skills and whether she made good decisions during the snow induced crisis. But I will comment on how she mismanaged communications while speaking up from under-the-bus.
Basic Rules for Leading During a Crisis
- When customers are upset and angry:
- Empathize
- Tell them what you’re doing to fix the problem and what they can expect, when
- Don’t defend yourself or your team…yet
- When communicating publicly:
- Maintain your calm
- Don’t blame or criticize others (You can do that privately)
- Prepare. Predict. Rehearse.
Identify your main points, in advance, and stick to them. Use your team, coach, PR and communications experts. Know what the press is likely to ask, and yes, they will ask if you’re going to resign.
Bev Scott committed leadership suicide by breaking these rules during a press conference that she called. You can watch it here.
1. Dr. Scott doesn’t maintain her calm and isn’t on point. After four minutes her anger takes over. Scott should get her anger under control before meeting the press. Anger can be used strategically and intentionally but YOU should use IT, not vice versa. Let’s also be mindful that women are judged more harshly for losing emotional control and black women even more so. Unfair, yes, but that’s the way it is.
2. Dr. Scott doesn’t begin by building an empathic bridge with MBTA riders. She could have done this -> “I understand how frustrated and angry you are. You need and deserve a reliable public transportation system that gets you where you need to go. That’s what we want you to have, and it clearly isn’t happening now.” Then, and only then, could Scott talk about a 100 year old system that couldn’t function in the epic conditions at play. She could have set the stage to win people over for a future fight to oppose Governor Baker’s proposed MBTA budget cuts. But first, she has to empathize.
3. Bev Scott pulls the covers off Governor Baker, which amounts to criticizing the boss. When asked if she was angered by his comments about MBTA operations, she replies,
“I have had no conversation with the governor throughout the 3 weeks of what has been going on.”
With this statement, and the anger Dr. Scott expresses over Baker’s budget cuts, it’s inevitable that she will either step down or be fired. Scott is right about the problems, but oddly, being right isn’t part of the rulebook. Regardless of what Baker did or didn’t do, Scott’s moves go down as “Not a team player.” Fair or unfair, this is a particularly bad designation for a woman to hold.
Gender, Race, and the Rules of Play
Bev Scott is a strong, outspoken African American woman. No doubt, this played a role in how people viewed and responded to her leadership during the crisis. Former Mayor Patrick Duval, an African American man, democrat and Obama supporter, hired Bev Scott as G.M. of the MBTA. Charlie Baker is a white republican. Coincidentally, he lives in Swampscott, Massachusetts, where I grew up. At that time, it was an all-white suburb. There were no blacks, and Jews weren’t allowed to buy homes in certain neighborhoods. It’s changed since then, but is still a predominantly white upper middle class community. All of this made a difference in how Bev Scott was viewed, but none of it gives her permission to ignore the rule book.
Those of us who are not part of the in-power group, have to play by the prevailing rules established long ago by the ancestors of the in-power group, until…
We have the power to change the rules. It’s happening, however slowly, but we’re not there yet. Like it or not, we won’t get there by breaking the rules.
Stay tuned for Charlie Baker’s role and the BIG mistakes he made during the crisis that led to Bev Scott’s leadership suicide.