The tail wagging the dog? - A case of what you do not see, or do not want to see.

Amidst the Abraaj scandal, we are reminded again of where we were 10 years ago prior to the Lehman's collapse and the trigger for the GFC. The question that boards and senior executives need to answers now is who is managing or governing who?

A bit like global warming, melting icecaps, plastic filled whales and children starving, why does it take these powerful images to stir us into action, often when its too late and when we already know its the right thing to do.

By the time investor were aware of any smoke signals and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation decided to investigate Abraaj the damage had been done. The regulator is also not at fault in this case as the problem often lies with the Executives and Board members that are meant to self govern organisations for the greater good and not for the benefit of the few.

Is that starting to sound familiar in terms of what happened in the lead up to the Financial Crisis of 2009? So why have we not learnt from those mistakes, as we all have relatively short memories when it comes to failure.

What would help leaders, boards and regulators would be to understand the role of the thing that unites and controls us all. "The brain".

The brain is a wonderfully simple and complex organ at the best of times. It is the egocentric safety centre that is meant to save us from harm and prevent us from hurting ourselves, but perversely it is not conditioned to stop us from hurting others.

The brain is conditioned and hard wired, when under stress, to react in one of three ways. Fight, Flight or Freeze. We no longer need to run away from dinosaurs, which its believed this conditioning came from, but new threats to our bodies and ego's play out the same reaction in the brain.

What would help boards govern and enforce corporate governance would be a sense of what really makes people tick and what drives human behaviour. Whatever the right thing to do this is often in conflict with self preservation or self interest. In this case probably both were at play. Add to that a large dose of ego and it is easy to see how you may start to convince yourself that you could get away with anything. How many times do we see that play out in corporations or in Hollywood.

In our role of assessing, hiring and developing board members and senior executives the question of professional ethics rarely comes up. Why should it? To question someones professionalism or ethics is not the done thing is it? Of course a senior executive incentive's on pay and bonus is only going to act in the best interest of the business, shareholders, investors and employees. Assuming however that we are all human, have a brain, and think and act largely in our self interest and preservation then why would it not be unusual to expect that when the chips are down most people are going to hide the truth to protect themselves, Fight, Flight or Freeze?

None of us are perfect, and without removing all of the blame, we are all human and therefore we have to assume that these things will happen again. Therefore it is up to organisations to ensure that the culture of openness, transparency and no repercussions allows staff and boards to call people out when they see leadership behaviour that is potentially damaging to people or the business in any from.

That is what a board of directors who are supposedly "independent" are there to do. To regulate, to moderate to protect. So that begs the questions, who is auditing the board and the humans that are making the mistakes or turning the other cheek. Guess what? No one.

There maybe is the questions no one wants to ask, or answer, which is why will continue to see cases of the tail wagging the dog.

Matthew Lewis, is a Partner, Middle East and Africa with Boyden. A CEO Coach, 25 student and regional expert on Leadership, Talent and applied Neuroscience in the context of business and human behaviour. www.boyden.com