The challenge of leadership – doing the right thing. This is a phrase that is often uttered by some leaders I know. But how many truly know what it entails?
What is the right thing to do? One of the few leaders I truly respected often reminded my colleagues and me to always do the right thing. After some experience in leading, I have come to realise that doing the right thing can be very difficult and challenging. It often goes against popular perception and it often comes with a lot of resistance. People naturally seek the path of least resistance and some find that doing the right thing is sometimes not worth the hassle. But at what cost?
Greed and the lack of desire to do the right thing has caused a massive scandal and unnecessary lives in the China tainted milk scandal.
“Melamine, high in nitrogen, makes products with it appear higher in protein. Suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have added it to watered-down milk to cover up the resulting protein deficiency” – http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080919/tap-as-china-baby-formula-recall-bb10fb8.html
Whatever happened to the inspections? Did the suppliers think that they could cover up such unethical acts? Was the money more important than doing the right thing? I don’t know the answers but somehow I think that in the pursuit of financial gains, greed overpowered rational thought.
The terrifying thought is that this is not the first case from China. One wonders how the China leadership is addressing what I call a lack of ethical behaviour, i.e. a lack of wanting to do the right thing.
Something akin happened in the US or rather has been happening in the US. Greed and fear were the key themes in the sub-prime crisis and recent US stock market collapse. With perpetual transnational terrorist threats, a stretched military, waning international support and chronic economic woes, to say that the US top leadership has a heavy load on their shoulders would be the understatement of the century. No US presidential candidate has ever had it so tough. One can only hope that the elected candidate will bite the bullet and do what is right and necessary.
If the top leaders in 2 of the largest and most influential nations do not address these unethical issues in their countries, the world is in for a tempestuous time.
How many leaders have the strength to go against popular opinion? How many leaders actively seek to do the right thing? The optimist in me whispers that enough of them are but the pessimist in me shouts that lots aren’t courageous enough.
One can only pray and hope that enough of them are in China and US.
