I Guess He Never Really Grew Up

In 2010, 8 Hongkong nationals died during a hostage taking due to a f*ck up by our government negotiators.
 
Our dear President refused to accept liability and apologize to the grieving and understandably pissed off Hongkong government.
 
Because of this, thousands of his “bosses” working their ass off in Hongkong were affected by the diplomatic tension.  Our tourism industry suffered and Manila was hailed as one of the unsafest places for tourists on earth. 
 
In 2013, the Presidential Disbursement Acceleration Program (PDAP) was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme court.
 
A plan wholly concocted by and during the Aquino  administration in which  the President refused to have any accountability with.
 
This year, 44 SAF were killed due to (again) government screw ups.
 
Malacañang deemed this as a “misencounter” due to a lack of coordination.
 
Again, not his fault.
 
According to Social psychologist Elliot Aronson, our brains work hard to make us think we are doing the right thing, even in the face of sometimes overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
 
Of course, no one wants to be wrong.  But we also know that no one is perfect.
 
And as a leader, there are mistakes that you should own up to and apologize for.  That is part of the Job Description.
 
Author Kathryn Schulz explains the problem of error blindness:
 
“… the sentence ‘I am wrong’ describes a logical impossibility. As soon as we know that we are wrong, we aren’t wrong anymore, since to recognize a belief as false is to stop believing it. Thus we can only say ‘I was wrong.'”

So even for those of us who try hard to admit our mistakes, it’s almost impossible for us to do so, at least in the present. “… we can be wrong, or we can know it, but we can’t do both at the same time.”

 
Granted that the realization of being wrong comes a bit late,  when (and not if) it comes, we should practice acceptance and show remorse.  That is part of being human and part of being a leader.
 
I cannot help but admire President Obama who once said in response to a question by a journalist about any of the mistakes of his administration:  
 
“It's not that I don't engage in a lot of self-reflection here. I promise you, I probably beat myself up, you know, even worse that you or Ed Henry does on any given day.”
 
I do not know Ed Henry, but I know that this is the kind of leader or human being we all should aspire to be.
 
It is just so sad that our dear PNOY never accepts mistakes, is quick to blame others and is simply too insensitive to bother to apologize to his bosses.
 
No wonder no woman has caught him yet.  And I guess no woman ever will.
 
It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Note:  Image courtesy of spot.com.ph