Don’t Get Wet: From Swimming and Gremlins to Leadership Accountability

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle

Don’t Get Wet

Whenever we were about to go swimming as kids, Dad would always say, “Don’t get wet.” Of course, we knew he was joking—how can you swim and not get wet? And if we had just eaten, Mom would always tell us wait a few minutes before going back into the pool.  The last thing our parents wanted was to have to dive in and pull-out kid cramping up because we jumped back in too quickly. 

But what if the warnings carry more dire consequences? Do you remember the movie The Gremlins?” In the movie, there were these cute little creatures called Mogwai. But as the humans in the movie soon discovered, these Mogwai came with two very important warnings: “Don’t get them wet and don’t feed them after midnight.” When you got a Mogwai wet, they would multiply quickly, often creating more mischievous versions of themselves. Secondly, when you fed them after midnight, they turned into Gremlins. Gremlins are malevolent and cause chaos and destruction everywhere they go.

Dad never intended for us not to get wet and avoid the pool; he wanted us to have fun. And eating and swimming too quickly was somewhat innocuous for us. With the creatures in The Gremlins, however, it was clear that the characters wanted to avoid feeding them too late and getting them wet at all costs.

It’s Only…

Let’s look at this concept from a different perspective. We evaluate many things in our lives with a range of risk or tolerance levels. We can justify acceptance of compromise, especially for ourselves, if we believe it protects or justifies certain other behaviors. For example, we may say, “It’s only a little white lie; it won’t hurt anyone.” But when we lie, big or small, it hurts us—truth and lies are fundamental characteristics of integrity.

In the same manner, when we compromise with the Problem Monsters that creep into our lives or into our teams, we impact our standards and integrity. As an example, let’s use the Problem Monster of avoidance—we like to call this monster Avoidor at Leadership In Focus. Someone succumbing to the influence of Avoidor is brushing off accountability, responsibility, and ownership, perhaps not following through on their commitments. When is it acceptable for us to let them, or ourselves for that matter, off the hook?

The answer is that it should never be acceptable. Yet often we give ourselves and team members too much grace. It’s okay to forgive someone for a lapse in accountability if they are genuinely remorseful for the oversight. But it is important to uphold standards and remind our team members of their accountabilities, our expectations, and the consequences of not following through. It’s equally important for us as leaders to hold ourselves to a higher standard, responsibly follow through, and be quick to course-correct when we too fall behind.

The Problem Monsters show up in many forms, be it avoidance, overthinking, procrastination, people-pleasing, disruption, division, etc. And if we don’t stop feeding these monsters, they grow too big and become uncontrollable—kind of like this guy:

Closing Thoughts: Daylight Intervention 

"Leaders who refuse to confront reality, to make tough decisions, or to hold people accountable are not leaders at all." — John C. Maxwell

In the movies, you always see the heroes defeat the monsters in some epic final battle. It is always a nail-biting finish where there is a hint of doubt about whether the hero will prevail. For the Gremlins themselves, their demise was caused by exposure to sunlight.

But in real life, the Problem Monsters can prevail if you overfeed them, multiplying them with a sprinkling of liquid compromise or by turning a blind eye. Excuses, tolerance, and compromise are the diet that Problem Monsters thrive on. However, much like the Gremlins, exposure to daylight can contribute to their demise. As leaders, we must stop feeding the Problem Monsters and instead bring to light the behaviors and patterns that cause disruption and a lack of accountability in our workplaces and lives.