Perhaps an example of traces of what good leadership can be about, after clearly failing to enforce established standards and values, the board chair and CEO have resigned from the Miss America organization.
While the Miss America website states that the organization:
is more than a title, it’s a movement of empowering young women everywhere to achieve their dreams by giving them a voice to inspire change and by honoring their commitment to helping others.
But, according to the Huffington Post
a barrage of emails were uncovered over a span of three years, in which Haskell (the CEO) regularly engaged in offensive conversations about women. He joked about the suggestion that Miss America 1998 Kate Shindle should pass away, and called Miss America 2013 Mallory Hagan “trashy” and “huge” and speculated on how many men she had slept with. In response to an email from board member Tammy Haddad, who was offering a suggestion about promoting one Miss America in favor of others, Haskell wrote, “Brilliant…..f—ing Brilliant!!!! That will drive Gretchen INF—INGSANE.” Haddad has since resigned from the board.
49 former Miss Americas issued the following statement:
"We will continue to demand the resignations of every individual who either participated in the abuse of women or stood by and was complicit by failing to conduct proper due diligence, as legally required by their fiduciary obligations," the statement said. "In addition, we expect that no new board members will be appointed until every implicated board member has resigned."
While very public figures particularly in the corporate community have been learning about what can happen when harmful acts they do finally come to light, those governing these institutions (perhaps except for the Roman Catholic Church and Penn State) have largely gone unscathed. That the Board Chair resigned is a positive step and demonstration of what "ownership" means for an organization (for profit and nonprofit) and the former winner's call for "every implicated board member to resign" would be, in my opinion, the correct action for placing responsibility within every organization that has tolerated an environment of doing harm - internally or externally (e.g. the Boy Scouts).
But of course, corporate america's boards have not been as honest and brave as the Miss America Chair so it is with hope, that at minimum, the imposition of values and standards that do no harm, at least internally, might be another fall-out of this new world where at least women can step forward and tell their story and not see impunity for those who have failed them.