Here
Lies a Former Leader
What
a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive! These are the first
words that collect as Kramer (2003) argues why the past few decades may well be
regarded as the era when leaders believed the sky was the limit, they could fly
as close to the sun as ever imagined, and failure was something of which
philosophers wrote and pontificated. The Enron disaster certainly returned all
of us to Earth, including those rising stars of industry, whose faces, having
once “graced the covers of business magazines”, now met the unforgiving
pavement of Wall Street that left them wondering if greed was good; then what
went horribly wrong (Kramer, 2003, p. 58). Kramer chronicles the exploits that
capture global headlines; but, what happens when that same fall from grace
happens here at home?
As reported
by FlaglerLive (2015a), just weeks after her office was raided by The Florida
Department of Law Enforcement, the ex-elections supervisor abruptly resigned
her post. Within but a few months of that resignation, a grand jury would
return twelve felony indictments against the same constitutional officer for
Flagler County (FlaglerLive, 2015a). I well remember her seemingly meteoric
rise. Her career began as a Deputy Clerk of Probate for the Flagler Clerk of
Court. She, along with nine other clerks, had been unceremoniously fired in
such a manner, that procedures for future employee terminations were either
enhanced, or developed and implemented. For months, she doggedly pursued
evidence against the Clerk of Court which led to an audit by the State of
Florida Auditor General that found many irregularities for which processes and
procedures have been developed by both the County Commission and Clerk’s office
so as to implement the Auditor General’s recommendations. Having won what the
former elections official considered a win against her former boss; she then
decided to run for the office of Supervisor of Elections having been advised
the incumbent would not seek re-election. It was a stunning and dramatic
victory and was reaffirmed in 2012 when she won re-election to a second term;
so, the resignation was all the more a curious event.
Kramer
(2003) points out leaders such as Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski, and Bernard Ebbers
“prove adept at overcoming whatever obstacles they encounter along the way” (p.
58). The same can be said for the former supervisor. By any measure of business
standards, those used by the former elections supervisor were unconventional,
to say the least. However, if the points made by Kramer (2003) are to be given
credence, then this constitutional officer certainly possessed the “incredible
daring and flair” for not only flaunting rules and breaking from the herd of
elected officials; she also epitomized the image of an “aggressive chief”, one
who slammed “herself in the news with creative controversies largely of her
making”, admired by society (FlaglerLive, 2015b; Kramer, 2003, p. 58). It would
appear her flare for the dramatics and willingness to push the envelope led to
the numerous indictments returned by the grand jury in May of this year.
The grand
jury found the former elections official had taped conversations of a county
commissioner, the county attorney, the county judge, the clerk for the City of
Palm Coast, and officials from the Florida Division of Elections, including the
Secretary of State, Ken Detzner; and, she did so without their permission
(FlaglerLive, 2015a). According to FlaglerLive (2015b), this former official “routinely
downloaded the audio files to her computer, edited and then transcribed them”.
Further, she disseminated the information; again, without permission
(FlaglerLive, 2015a). Kramer (2003) observes the underpinning mentality of the “winner-take-all”
leader as one that advocates in order to get ahead, one must do “things
differently from ordinary people” (p. 61). Unlike Reginald Lewis, cited by
Kramer (2003) as an excellent example for doing the unordinary, the only
backdoor sought by the former elections supervisor was to gather what she
thought to be incriminating evidence against many elected officials in order to
apply leverage to the many battles taking place between her office and other
county and city officials (FlaglerLive, 2015a). Lewis’ approach led him to the
halls of Harvard (Kramer, 2003). The former supervisor’s methodology has led to
an initial arrest and a long trial beginning January, 2016 (FlaglerLive,
2015a).
Kramer
(2003) concludes that while leaders should seek to be more reflective; often
times they have a low sense of who they are and “remain curiously oblivious to
many of their own tendencies that expose them to risk” (p. 66). I know of many
leaders who tried to offer guidance, assistance, and sage advice to the former
elections supervisor. I witnessed many of these interactions. I am often asked
if there was ever any hint of the paranoia-like behavior that was exhibited
almost from the beginning of her tenure. My answer is simply, No”. It seems as
if Kramer’s (2003) “decades of research in the behavioral sciences” came to
pass with this ex-leader, too (p. 66). She strived for and reached the top that
once there she changed in ways that had neither been anticipated nor expected.
As Kramer (2003) explains, he often has his students pen their own obituaries
as a way to become more aware of what success can do to a person. I often
wonder how this ex-elections supervisor would have written her obituary;
unfortunately, the media will soon be adding to her political obituary.
References
FlaglerLive. (2015a, May 6).
Grand Jury Indicts Ex-Election Supervisor Kimberle Weeks on
12
Felony Counts Over Secret Recordings. Retrieved from
FlaglerLive. (2015b, Oct. 23).
Latest Kimberle Weeks Pre-Trial Again Continued to January.
Retrieved
from http://flaglerlive.com/86721/kimberle-weeks-pretrial/
Kramer, R.M. (2003, Oct.) The
Harder They Fall. Harvard
Business Review, 81(10),
58-66.
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