Does Leader Morality Really Matter?
My many conversations with Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford Motor and Boeing Commercial Airplanes, led to our article called, "The Case for Leader Morality." It was published last week in Leader to Leader (link at end of this post). Here is why this subject is so important now.
We are living through a time of great confusion as to what good leadership is.
We hold an image that leaders need to be confident, driven, dominant personalities. We then judge people with those personalities as likely to be great leaders. Actually, they are only likely to be confident, driven, and dominant. Some of them make good leaders but many do not, while evidence shows that people with a different nature often excel at leadership.
Leading involves organizing and influencing people but more important questions are ‘where’ and ‘how’?
Hitler was a confident, driven, dominant personality who successfully organized and influenced people – and caused enormous damage. And we can identify many current leaders who influence people in harmful ways:
· They pursue ‘winning’ for themselves – unethically and/or illegally.
· They go beyond spinning the truth - they lie boldly and frequently.
· They seek gains for their organizations – ignoring the substantial negative consequences to society of which they are aware (e.g., climate, wealth disparity, safety).
Unfortunately, behaviors like these are everyday news.
We've witnessed egregious examples of damage in corporate leadership, faith-based organizations, and nonprofits. And we observe wayward politicians at all levels. It’s time for us to look beyond the confident, driven, dominant personality type for clues about leadership potential.
Is there a way to gauge whether someone is likely to be a much better leader? YES!
"Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort.”
— Lewis H. Lapham
Morality flows from leader humility. In my book, The Extraordinary Power of Leader Humility, I defined humility as feeling and displaying deep regard for others’ dignity (sense of self-worth). This goes beyond simply being nice. It means really caring about what contributes to another’s sense of worthiness.
When you think about it, if you truly value another's self-worth, you are pulled toward moral behavior.
Here’s why genuine humility is the best predictor of whether someone will lead morally:
1. Leaders with humility care about the individual and the things the individual needs to thrive. Humility means deep, rock solid respect for everyone's dignity. And because none of us exists in isolation, regard for our dignity must include care for the Greater Good - the social systems we all need in order to survive and thrive (family, healthcare, climate, government, etc.).
2. Leaders with humility demonstrate rigorous honesty. They recognize that dishonesty violates others’ dignity and is fundamentally immoral. These leaders practice rigorous honesty with themselves and others -- which builds trust and helps others work with the leader more effectively.
3. Leaders with humility are prone to principled courage. In the face of ethical dilemmas, they make moral decisions. They also have the courage to take moral action. This means doing the hard work to achieve goals -- and of insisting on practices that are important for the Greater Good.
Let’s get better at selecting leaders – and let’s hold ourselves to the highest moral standards.
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To learn more, here is where you can access and download “The Case for Leader Morality.”
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And that’s The Gist of It™ - a quick read with an actionable tip to increase your leadership success.
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Marilyn Gist, PhD