In this dog eat dog, greed is good world, what is the role and relevance of righteousness & honour ? What behaviour should the leadership should emulate; is the behaviour of winning at any cost relevant or winning with the right cause ?
Post WW II, the world defined Leadership as Macho and Masculine in nature and extrapolated to a large extent the phrase ‘all is fair in love and war’. This sentiment got extended to all walks of life and was picked by the corporate world as a ‘new definition’ of Leadership
In the second half of 20th Century both the corporate world and the Hollywood amplified this personna of tough, macho, ruthless leadership style, but on the ground did they deliver the any desired results is a debate ? To a large extent the quarter on quarter results may have been extraordinary but how many times this style was able to establish an Institution which is long admired and sustained and grew with the each crisis around ?
All we have heard and read is about organisations like Theranos, Enron, Lehman Brothers etc who for all the wrong reasons have taken our mindshare and haven’t given much to aspire for. None of these or more have survived / thrived as an institution for more than a couple of decades.
So what are the foundations of any effective leaders in todays times, if we decide to delete the Macho and Masculine, well the answer the starts from the two dimensions of ‘What’ (Who is the Stakeholder) and ‘How” (What are the beliefs based on which we build on.
The Idea / Framework
Modern Day Leadership foundations can be defined on two pillars of ‘What’ and ‘How’. As referred in the Fig 1, the What is basically the ‘Purpose’ which Leadership is striving to achieve and the How are the ‘Beliefs’ / code on which the journey towards what is based on
The Key leadings for us at this point of time are is the Purpose ‘Meaningful’ and are the beliefs based on a ‘Moral Code’
As we further deep dive and dwell in the context of Meaningful and Moral Code, the ethos emerges and clarifies itself. Meaningful doesn’t restrict itself to us alone ie. Leader but extends to all the Stakeholders and Moral Code amplifies living in a rightful manner to all and in all times.
The Purpose dimension moves from a scale from Meaningful for Self to Less of Meaningful, both the dimensions are ineffective for the leaders , what is optimal is Meaningful for All. As leaders it is critical to appreciate that we are responsible and accountable to all the stakeholders in the ecosystem equally and not just be inclined to Clients or Shareholders. We have to be inclusive and uphold all stakeholders.
The Belief dimension moves from the Scale of Less of Righteous to Righteous for Self and hereto these extreme dimensions don’t serve the Leader. Being Righteous to All is the key as that is what is expected as part of a Moral Code which leader follows and even critical than that is being Righteous in all situations from fair to adverse. Many a times as leaders we forget or let go righteousness in face of adversity.
By K. Srinivas rao
