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Watching the documentary on the Enron Scandal prompted me to reflect on the significant role that leaders plays in setting the tone for the way business is conducted in a given environment. Just as the documentary’s title suggests, Kenneth Lay, Jeffery Skilling, Andy Fastow and whole cast of characters were indeed very smart. One would need to have equal amounts of intelligence and malice to execute a plan that ultimately resulted in convincingly bilking investors and employees out of millions of dollars. Enron even had Wall Street fooled. Enron’s leaders did an excellent job of convincing outsiders that the company was financially healthy, viable and participating in ethical business practices. In the end, nothing about Enron’s practices was ethical at all. I left class that night with much to consider and ponder as a manager. As a manager, one of my goals is to lead by example. For me this means that I to model the behaviors that I want to see from my staff because I cannot expect them to conduct themselves with a high level of professionalism if I don’t do so myself. This is why, the Enron story really struck a nerve with me. My take away from the video was this: as a leader I must be mindful of the huge impact that I have on the organizational culture.  

Until this class, I had not really thought about the huge role that a leader plays in defining an organizations culture. From this experience, I reflected on my own leadership style. More importantly, it also made me think about the influence that I have in shaping the behavior and values of individuals in my department. One of the things that we have learned this semester is that organization culture is often dictated by what a leader pay attention to, measures, and controls on a regular basis. At Enron the focus seemed to have been stock price, profits using mark-to-market accounting, and maintaining a solid credit rating.  All of their actions centered on these things. Enron was so fixated on its stock price that it posted visible reminders throughout the building so that employees would never forget was was important. This idea resonated with me because it reinforced the idea that the things that are important to me as a manager should be those things that benefit the organization and should not be achieved or sustained with unethical behaviors. I can see where the challenges arises with business that are driven by profits and keeping investors happy. The pressure often leads to unethical business practices and an unhealthy work place. Employees get caught in a vicious cycle where one lie leads to another and then another until the house of cards comes tumbling down. Unfortunately, once Enron imploded, thousands of people’s lives had been destroyed, businesses were dismantled, and the American public’s faith in corporate America was shattered. I’m extremely glad that I don’t work in an environment driven by dollars and cents.

When I think of Enron’s leaders the words greedy, proud, arrogant, and unethical come to mind. Enron’s senior leadership demonstrated these characteristics on multiple instances throughout the documentary. One of those situations that stood out for me was when Enron used its influence to shut down electric power in California for financial gains while disrupting the lives of Californians. The thing that struck me the most about the senior leadership is that the feeling of guild did not exist. I was struck by how cool, calm, and collected Jeff Skilling seemed during the hearings. He didn’t seem to break a sweat during the questioning.  Very scary!

 

In all, at the conclusion of the documentary, I thought about something that my grandmother’s use to say to me all the time: “what’s done in the dark will soon come to the light”.

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