Management and Leadership: could you drop the bomb?

Passing the Buck and the Big Decision

Harry S Truman: "The buck
stops here"

Harry S. Truman was the thirty-third President of the United States of America. History remembers him as the man who took the fateful decision to drop the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945.  Historians have debated whether the use of the Bomb was justified in appreciably shortening the end of World War Two, or whether it was really the first act in the forthcoming Cold War, aimed at demonstrating to Russia the devastating power available to the USA in shaping the post-war world.


Some commentators suggest Truman claimed not to have felt any remorse about the decision and that he never lost any sleep over it. He didn't shirk that decision and regardless of the consequences - or the ethical dimension to the use of the atomic bomb - he took a decision in full control of the available facts and with a firm appreciation of the potential consequences for life and property. No one before, or since, has been required to make a decision which would cause such an instantaneous and horrifying loss

of life.

The mushroom cloud of an atomic explosion

"The Buck Stops Here"

On his desk in the Oval Office of the White House, Truman famously had a sign which read, "The Buck Stops Here". Truman referred to this sign on a number of occasions, during speeches and public addresses. The phrase comes from the slang to 'pass the buck': meaning to shirk ones responsibility when it resides with you. It originated in poker, where the 'buck' signified whose turn it was to deal, but if they chose not to, they would pass on the buck to the next player. In a speech in 1952, Truman famously said, "You know it's easy for the Monday morning quarterback to say what the coach should have done, after the game is over.  But when the decision is up before you ... the decision has to be made."

"Monday morning quarterbacks"

What does all of this have to do with leadership? You will never have to face a decision so fateful and devastating in its consequences that thousands of lives may be lost in the single sweep of a pen, like Truman had to.  However, you may be called upon to reach a decision that impacts the people who work for you: a loss of livelihood or the end of a career, shutting down a poorly performing team, or reprimanding an unruly manager. Whatever the magnitude of the decision, the measure of your leadership is in recognising the consequences of your course of action and then taking that decision in full knowledge of the facts, as they exist at the time.  The 'Monday morning quarterbacks', as Truman called them, will always find a reason to criticise, armed as they are with the clarity of 20:20 hindsight, but as a leader you need to be someone who people can believe will take the decisions when you are called upon to do so, both big and small.

Dropping the bomb ...

You will never be asked to drop the atomic bomb, but your decision may be a metaphorical 'atom bomb' in the lives of your team or for the future of your business.  To be a real leader you need to able to identify those decisions when they arise and also appreciate that they can only be taken by you. Next time you have a weighty decision to take and you have been procrastinating and stalling the final decision, you might like to recall and reflect upon the example of Harry S. Truman.  Think about whether your team are looking to you with the belief that on your desk resides the sign, "The Buck Stops Here". Could you drop the bomb or will you pass the buck?


Written by Will Trevor, Founder and training consultant at Windsor Training
Email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Picture credits: (1) By uncredited photographer (Truman Library) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; (2) By FEMA News Photo (This image is from the FEMA Photo Library.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons