The Moral Aspects of Leadership

I want to begin this final piece in our series on leadership by quoting a well-known and respected leader right here in the Czech Republic. “Leadership is a very serious responsibility. You are affecting people’s lives,” Tomas Sabatka.

This is exactly the sort of insight, integrity, self control and reflection that makes good leaders great.

Today we’ll take a look at something that gets far too little attention until something terrible happens such as the corporate scandals we all lived through with Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and other examples, which are now case studies in business schools around the world. We’ll look at some of the many moral aspects of leadership as seen through the eyes of our panel of proven and respected leaders. Their brief biographies can be seen in column XLIII, which can be found at: http://ihned.cz/index.php?p=0019J0.

The concept of moral leadership is evolving in every part of the world today as we grapple with this thing called globalization. There are also parts of the world where history has served up such hideous examples of abuse from leaders that the very word itself evokes unpleasant memories. For example, I’m told that such is the case here in the Czech Republic with the word vudce and that it is often substituted in the Czech Corporate Lexicon with the English word “leader“ when the topic is discussed or a reference is made to someone in a leadership position that is not meant to be derogatory.

Personally, I hope that there will be a Czech word that denotes leader in a positive sense. Perhaps one will evolve as our understanding and experience evolves here.

According to Dr. Meyer the key, consistant definer of moral leadership throughout written history and back into the oral tradition is, in his words, “... how we treat others. This is the overiding principle of moral leadership.“ Ron Gerevas develops this thought in an equally plain spoken manner, “Leadership is not about creating things out of ego alone, it’s about building something for others—the employees as well as the customers—and taking the long view versus quarter-to-quarter.“

Senator Schwarzenberg talked to us in the previous installment of this series about the importance of honesty and courage in leadership. His comments remind me of a concept one of the best leaders I have known, my father-in-law, Colonel J.R. McDonald, told me many years before his death. The concept is known as „The Harder Right“. Basically, what it means is this: As a leader you will find yourself in situations from time-to-time that will require you to take difficult decisions. A short-term decision could be one that eases the pain quickly but provides little guidance for the future. A more difficult decision, the harder one, would be one that is not easy to do—it might even hurt in the short term, but it is the right decision to take for the longer view and for the integrity and well-being of all those involved.

A recent example of this that comes to mind is the Dell Computer recall that involved more than 4 million batteries. Top management at Dell knew that they would take a beating in the short-term from a standpoint of cost, hassle, and sales, but they chose to act quickly and decisively and do what my father-in-law would call the harder right—to do what was right for all concerned, because they knew that by doing so they would send a much more imporatnt message: our customers can trust us to do what is right for them and to act ethically, even if it hurts us in the short term.

Being a moral leader doesn’t mean that you can’t be bottom-line-driven and want to generate a profit. You owe it to your customers, employees and investors to stay in business, to pay a fair wage which attracts and keeps talented employees, who in turn produce quality products and services, and to provide a solid return to those who have invested in your company. But, the difference is that moral, ethical leaders see the world through the eyes of others, too, not just their own. They have a broader horizon of understanding because they take the time to reflect and to consider how their actions and decisions will impact all involved. Moral leaders come in all shapes, sizes, colors and gender, religions and ethnicity and there are many different approaches to moral leadership. One of the constants of moral leadership, though, is its holistic nature—moral leaders are inclusive by nature and know the value of the „harder right“.

Many thanks to our panel of experts, Senator Schwarzenberg, Tomas Sabatka, Dr. G. Dale Meyer, and Ron Gerevas for their insights.

Good luck on your way up!