https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2304245329876411&id=1395987767368843
And, on a related note, just for fun google “incompetent prosecutor” and search “Images” this see who pops up at the #1 hit.
Month: March 2020
Another one bites the dust
Grant Simon, a felony/misdemeanor attorney, gave notice last week. That brings the total number of attorneys who have quit the CAO in the first two months of the year to 6.
A lack of leadership
I’ve previously written about Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and her office’s many serious problems. And what they all come down to, I think, is a failure of leadership.
In case you haven’t heard of them, Leif Babin and Jocko Willink are former Navy SEALs that have become recognized business consultants and best-selling authors. The basis of their message is that the principles of good leadership are independent of domain: what makes a good leader in the military makes a good leader in business and also makes a good leader in fill-in-the-blank-activity.
One of their trenchant observations is that “there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
www.businessinsider.com/former-navy-seals-no-bad-teams-only-bad-leaders-2016-9
In other words, if a team or office is under-performing, it is because of poor leadership. Conversely, if a team or office demonstrates exceptional results it is because of exceptional leadership. The results of a team or office reflect the leadership of that team or office.
The Circuit Attorney’s Office is no exception. The results of that office only demonstrate Ms. Gardner’s leadership.
When we accept this tenet, we can see that for a team or office to improve, the leadership must improve. Leaders can only improve, however, by taking “ownership” or responsibility for the lack of results by their team or office and then changing their behaviors. If the leader won’t accept that they are the problem — and instead blame circumstances, others, etc. for their team’s or office’s problems, or they lie about their office’s results — then they won’t change what they are doing, how they are leading. They will keep doing the same, leading the same, and expecting different results.
Unfortunately, Kim Gardner refuses to take responsibility for her problems. She maintains that all her problems are the result of a racist conspiracy that is trying to frustrate her efforts.
Yes, that’s right. According to Kim Gardner, the police union, the individual citizen suing her to determine if she has used public funds to pay for personal legal expenses, and the special appointed prosecutor that brought perjury charges against her hand-picked investigator in the Greitens case, are all to blame for . . . well, I don’t exactly know. Because her federal lawsuit doesn’t specifically say other than they are out to stop her from enacting her reforms. What specific reforms they have prevented or how they have prevented them are not enumerated in her suit. It’s just that they are all trying to “destroy her.”
How does any of that impact the day-to-day operation of her office? I have no idea. I can’t see how the actions of the people named in her lawsuit — regardless of what they did or do — have any significant effect on the running of her office. Are they to blame for the mass exodus of attorneys, that her office is running with a 50% trial staff, that the CAO trial conviction rate is in the toilet, etc.? I don’t see how. Perhaps that’s why Ms. Gardner didn’t provide specifics in her federal lawsuit; she can’t think of how they can either.
That only points to the fact that her federal lawsuit is not a real attempt to solve her office’s problems. It’s just a political smokescreen designed to shift blame away from her and obscure the real problem: a failure in leadership.
Until Ms. Gardner steps up and takes ownership of her problems, she will keep doing the same, leading the same, and expecting different results.
