Bad Leadership
Barbara Kellerman, author of Bad Leadership needs to add a new category.
This is an interesting (and unfortunate) compilation of leaders who have cheated and in the process lost the trust of constituents, and undermined their ability to effectively lead.
“I don’t want to blow up my time in politics,” he told the AP. “I don’t want to blow up future earning power, I don’t want to blow up the kids’ lives. I don’t want to blow up 20 years that we’ve invested. But if I’m completely honest, there are still feelings in the way. If we keep pushing it this way, we get those to die off, but they’re still there and they’re still real.”
July 30th, 2009 at 8:48 am
When it comes to politicians, they are too often given credit for being a “leader” when they really aren’t. They have a tremendous opportunity to BECOME a leader (ideally a “Servant Leader”) but quickly lose sight of THAT particular opportunity in favor of other, more ominous “opportunities.”
September 15th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I think it was Zig Ziglar who made the comment that corporations need to stop trying to teach people “ethics” and put the focus on “integrity”. The study of ethics seems to hint at the idea that if a behavior can be justified it may be okay depending on the situation. Leaders then look for loopholes. Integrity is less about the specific details of the action and more about the intentions of the leader committing those actions. The focus of integrity is to do what is right, with the right motive and intention. If a leader in an organization is acting in accordance to this definition, that company or organization will be faced with far fewer of the sticky ethical situations we so often read about.
December 4th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
These are good insights. As an Adjunct Professor, I have taught ethics for years and repeatedly I see the same patterns across organizations. Specifically, those organizations that have a code of ethics with a program to bring the core values to life tend consistently out perform those that do not. Values drive decision making, action and results. When employees demonstrate values on a daily basis, it increases the quality of the interactions and ultimately the results. If an organization is looking for a way to jump start their mission, putting together a meaningful ethics/values program can make all the difference in the World. Check out http://www.danajarvis.org for more.