We all miss things, but I agree in principle. At a certain level, your compensation essentially says "no is not an option". I've never once seen it explicitly

We all miss things, but I agree in principle. At a certain level, your compensation essentially says "no is not an option". I've never once seen it explicitly stated this way, but it is obvious what the implied expectations are once you are working around these kinds of people for any length of time. In a healthy organization (a potentially rare thing in the following context), the most responsible employee is the CEO/president. They don't get to make the kinds of excuses that even other senior employees do. In fact, they get to make no excuses at all. There's no backstop behind this person. They are the backstop. Outsourcing responsibility is the path to the dark side. "Not my problem" is how we wind up in a vicious cycle. If we find our heels in deep, let us try taking a leap of faith on something. We can always return to the crab bucket. They'd be more than happy to pull us back in.