Leadership — Some ethical challenges

Great leadership has a sustained impact on people

Leadership has increasingly become a perception game, increasingly influenced by how recent and newsy the images accompanying it are.
Leadership is like an iceberg. The media, analysts and the general public see only its tip, that which rises above the water. If this part looks shapely and interesting, they put it on a pedestal. Great leaders, on the other hand, go to work at the base of the iceberg – a cold, dark and uncomfortable place – chipping away at and blasting the foundation in an attempt to renew or modify the structural framework of the organisation. To outside observers it might well appear that nothing much is happening, but great leaders do what they have to without regard to appearances, because they genuinely believe that theirs is but one lap in a relay race. Outstanding leaders are anointed long after their work is done, not three months after they become CEOs.

True leadership is institutionalised, not personalised

Genuine leaders see their role as part of a larger process, not as the process itself. They get to run with the baton for a few laps of what is a long race.

Leadership is never proven; it is tested each day

CEOs lose their jobs for two broad clusters of reasons: governance and change. The governance cluster includes differences of opinion with assertive board members, botching up acquisitions, misjudging the line between self-confidence and arrogance, etc. The change cluster includes perceptions of the pace of change being too slow, not carrying people along, being too hard or too soft, and so on. What a bewildering array of reasons. I doubt whether there is anything called a 'proven' CEO in today's world. It seems that you have to prove yourself all over again – every day.

The public-life flaws of leaders affect moral purpose

All leaders are flawed, but the point to consider is whether their flaws are acceptable. Excellent leadership is the two-fold ability to lead people morally and effectively. But morality, though necessary, is not a sufficient condition. If a person is thought to be effective then the inevitable morality test comes into play. If the flaws are in public life, they can be debilitating. That isn't necessarily the case if these flaws are in a person's private life, but the morality barometer reads differently in different societies.

The greatest mistake leaders can make is to assume that results alone matter, that morality and goodness do not count. On the contrary, as amorality becomes more rampant, as the heart of darkness expands, the natural human instinct is a craving towards light. We need results and we need them desperately – but with goodness and moral purpose.


This article has been excerpt R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director, Tata Sons. The complete credit of this article goes to him.
In this summerised article he explores what it means to don the mantle of leadership, the responsibilities and pitfalls.