Our country is currently facing a leadership crisis of epic proportions. The general public has become distrustful and disillusioned with leaders in the corporate world, within the political arena, and even within our religious institutions. The ability to influence others, which is the essence of leadership, is the direct result of the level of trust and credibility that leaders have with their followers. Unfortunately, our culture is filled with countless individuals who find it difficult to trust their leaders because so many leaders have compromised their professed value systems. There are many individuals in our society who raise their voices with clarity about the countless problems that exist in every realm of life. Many of these problems exist because of a lack of moral leadership in our culture.
Leadership is primarily a moral endeavor. It is a tragic reality that many no longer believe that business is fundamentally a moral activity. Someone has proposed that leadership is character in motion—drawing its followers to a virtuous destination at which they don’t necessarily wish to arrive. This kind of leadership is not about style as much as it is about character. It is about being rather than doing. Character is not about what you say or even what you do. Character in the final analysis will always be about who we are! There are many who believe that a leader’s character should have no bearing upon a leader’s ability to lead. This should not surprise us in a culture that is drowning in a sea of moral relativism where the masses no longer believe in moral absolutes. Sooner or later, this approach to life and leadership, will lead to the moral disintegration of our culture and an unwillingness of many to do business with those who engage in unethical business practices. In the world of business, reputation is a matter of staying in business or going out of business. In time, a lack of integrity will always negatively impact a business.
What is the answer to the current leadership crisis? In a word, it is character. The solution to so many of the perplexing problems that presently plague our culture is moral, ethical and character-based leadership. It has become popular in our day to build leadership platforms upon an individual’s personality, charisma, education, reputation, talent and intelligence with no mention of character. Character, a wise person once said, is what we do when no one else is looking. In the world of business, we need to begin reminding ourselves and one another that character still counts. There is an answer to the current leadership crisis that exists in our world. That answer is for leaders to lead with a moral compass and personal integrity, with the goal of restoring leadership trust and credibility in a disillusioned world that has lost its ability to trust its leaders.
