Remember how the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was treated soon after the Katrina disaster?  He wasn’t treated well at all.  Few people, if anyone, gave him the benefit of the doubt when he stated he had clearly communicated the possible degree of the destruction before the hurricane hit.

We all learned some five months later from videotapes that the Director of FEMA had indeed communicated the potential danger to the highest levels of our government.  Though the Director of FEMA, like countless others, made errors (blaming others, etc), the real lesson here as ethical leaders is we must avoid the “ready, fire, aim” mentality.  We must consider things from different angles and resist the temptation to make snap judgments about people and situations.