BP's Tony Hayward: Worst Leader of the Year

I'll acknowledge that it's just too easy to nominate BP CEO Tony Hayward as the worst leader of the year. Granted, he's got some stiff competition, but he deserves every inch of the big target on his back. Like a lot of people, I've got a crick in my neck from shaking my head after all of the stupid things he's said and feckless things he's done.

If you Google the phrase "Tony Hayward quotes", the first result you'll get back will be a link to a helpful compilation of them at a website called NowPublic.com. They're all sourced. Here are some of my favorites:

• "We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused to their lives," Hayward said."There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I'd like my life back."
• "The oil is on the surface," Hayward said. "There aren't any plumes."
• And here's Hayward on workers getting ill after cleaning up the spill, "I am sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it was anything to do with dispersants and oil, whether it was food poisoning or some other reason for them being ill, you know, there's a--food poisoning is surely a big issue when you've got a concentration of this number of people in temporary camps, temporary accommodations."

And then, of course, there's this gem from May 19, three weeks after the Deepwater Horizon Rig exploded:

• Lie to people
• Take no accountability
• Over promise and under deliver
• Feel sorry for yourself while others are really hurting

And, let's not forget, setting up the culture and the systems that lead to huge disasters in the first place. I touched on that last month in this blog, the Washington Post documented it in some solid reporting this week and Hayward himself gave a preview in this talk last year at the Stanford Graduate School of Business: