Question: Did the boss of Kweku Adoboli, the 31-year-old UBS trader who has admitted to wiping out $2.3bn of UBS funds, ever have a real heart to heart with this trader? Did he even have a meaningful annual conversation with him concerning anything aside from the nuts and bolts of the job? I just can’t imagine it. You would notice something. Surely you would notice his behaviour changing over the months? Because we’re not even talking about noticing subtle change over years. We’re talking about picking up signals from someone who has got themselves into a major jam in the period of a few days – and only then over months and years.

The first day.

And there was a first day. There was a day back in 2008 where Kweku turned up to work happy, or at least feeling OK, and left in pieces when he realised that he should have closed a position at a loss and taken the rap on the knuckles. Why didn’t his boss or colleagues notice, and if they did, why was there not a next step? Something in the interpersonal DNA of that trading desk meant that it was a conversation that nobody could have. But there is worse – at least for his leaders. As if they don’t look incompetent enough, have a little think about this… What dynamic existed between him and his boss that meant that Kweku couldn’t countenance turning around to his boss at any time in the first few weeks to say: “I’ve messed up big time”. Reports suggest that had the trader reported the problem at any point in the first few months (even in the first year, some say) then he would have had to endure little more than the proverbial smack on the wrist. So why didn’t he take advantage of this amnesty period and be done with it?

Behind the scenes.

Things are of course never as they appear. If you or I worked at UBS we would know the answers to all of these questions. We would know what the culture of the place is and recognise the strict yet invisible differences between the acceptable and the unacceptable. We would both know the taboo subjects and the corporate attitude to mistakes. We would both know who to look out for and who could be trusted to admit something to – who we could ask for advice without fear of being exposed as being weak, dumb or incompetent. It will be interesting to see how the management of UBS react to this appalling fault in leadership in the coming months. Will they bulk up on rules and regulations or will they put all their management on intensive doses of emotional skills training? Neither I hope. A little and often. A slow in-depth change of culture is what is needed. But above all, positive, intelligent  help, not snap, remedial training. An even more interesting question is: will you do anything differently on Monday morning in the way that you treat your reports or colleagues? Are you confident that you know your people as well as you need to? Are you sure that they can come to you with a mistake and meet with an intelligent response or even support? Is the culture in your area of the office or organisation such that people help each other, share ideas and confidences or is it highly competitive to the degree that the members of your team aren’t much bothered who falls by the wayside as long as it’s not them? The chances are that you recognise elements of all of these cultural conditions.

No man is an island – wanna bet?

No office or organisation has got team cooperation and intelligent, compassionate leadership completely taped 24/7. Why not? Well, because even if you are a great leader and your team really do pull together, most of the time, you can never account for the one or two people who join the organisation and then never quite fit; never completely drop their guards and connect with the social system. These people cannot be helped easily because they have not retained the ability to show vulnerability alongside technical authority and knowledge. They have, in fact, developed a persona which makes them much less vulnerable to life’s knocks and yet equally renders them beyond the reach of help. We all know that when we pull up the drawbridge we shut out the cavalry as well as the enemy; and for some of us the drawbridge will always be up more often than it is down. So, for the sake of both happiness and organisational fitness-for-purpose, we should invest energy in learning to recognise these well-defended people and also in fostering a social environment that makes ‘real’ conversations possible. Because as Leeson, Kerviel and now Adobole have shown us: if I have a problem, you have a problem.