How does consistency in decisions affect the respect for a leader?

Some actions in life, once taken, instantly relegate a person to the status of villain. Six months after my taking a senior position at a major children’s hospital, I had the unpleasant experience of discovering one of these: taking a playroom away from the children in the hospital.

Even worse, it was the only playroom in the building.

Before I came to the children’s hospital, a new group of pediatric intensivists had been recruited to run the intensive care unit (ICU). The hospital was old and too small to accommodate all their needs. A new replacement facility was under construction two miles away, but would not be finished for years. But the lead intensivist, due to arrive in two months, had been promised offices adjacent to the current ICU.

The only option was to take the hospital playroom and remodel it into the offices. My predecessor allegedly agreed to this decision—a decision invisible to all but the intensivists and administration. However, clearly the commitment had been made. When the time for remodeling arrived, the decision became entirely public and entirely attributed to me, as I was the chief operating officer.

There is no way to mitigate the offense of taking away the only playroom in a hospital. Playrooms in children’s hospitals are not just for play; a lot of therapy and family counseling occurred in this room. No matter how good your attitude, how affable your personality, or how honorable your intent, the action itself screams that you are mean-spirited and heartless. Had a popularity poll been taken at that point, I would have come in somewhere below an IRS auditor. Notices were posted by child life specialists and nurses, pleading with all readers to help save the playroom by writing to the ogre

(me) perpetrating this crime.

Overnight, I became public enemy number one. When the devil has been identified, people are galvanized. They don’t want to hear that you really don’t want to deprive children of their playroom. They prefer to hate you without being confused.