[privacythrow23]

If trustworthiness were able to be gauged by a single question world political history would be much more boring.

That being said, asking a CEO to take responsibility for a mistake is a pretty good indicator.

If they own the mistake. That's good. If they own the mistake and try to fix it. That's better. If they own the mistake and ask the people wronged how to make amends. They're probably not a CEO.

[ryandrake]

What does "take responsibility for a mistake" even mean when it comes to a CEO? Most recent examples of a CEO "taking responsibility" for mistakes that I can think of all involve them looking visibly sad on camera, sending an all-hands E-mail telling people how seriously they are taking things, and of course, laying off a bunch of lower-level employees. Occasionally, they also quit with a $XX million golden parachute, off to be CEO at another company.

You can't just say the magic incantation "I take full responsibility" and leave it at that.

[JohnFen]

> You can't just say the magic incantation "I take full responsibility" and leave it at that.

A decent rule of thumb is that if someone has to overtly say "I take full responsibility", they aren't taking full responsibility.