The Return of Responsible Leadership
Creating Organizations With A Compelling Sense of Responsibility
Sep 20, 2009
Citizens the world over, are clamoring for new leaders who will be custodians of a new social contract between workers, consumers, business, government and the environment. These leaders must inspire and lead decision makers, workers and consumers in sustaining human excellence, virtue, happiness, wellness and a pristine environment.
What is Driving the Need for Responsible Leadership?
In many societies of the world, citizens and workers have become conscious and damning of the recklessness, greed and materialism of the ruling elite. People have come to think and believe that irresponsible, reckless and greedy behavior of leaders were responsible for the great recession of 2009 and its devastating effects on ordinary people and their livelihoods.
As they intuitively seek more socially responsible leadership behaviors and results, they secretly join the wave of executive compensation bashing and endorse the initiatives to re-assess and restructure political landscapes, leadership structures and executive compensation packages.
Activist groups are popping up spontaneously and baying for the blood of executives, better wages and jobs and the removal of political leaders who had caused the malaise and had profited from it. The spotlight tracks failures in critical government services like health and education, financial control and the monopolistic behavior of business conglomerates.
Leaders and executives have become the scapegoats and outlets for something much deeper in the psyche of the people. Leaders are the only remedy to relieving the deep fears and frustrations that had built up over time. All ancient and traditional remedies for fear and depression, inclusive of religious doctrines and spiritual escapism had tangibly failed them. The deep fears, anxieties and frustrations were caused by:
- Devastating and bloody images of terrorism in inner cities and the threat of mass destruction by nuclear bombs caused deep pockets of fear and rampant anxiety. Media coverage of public explosions, war bombings, killings and the grim aftermath of war are driving these fears.
- Escalating health risks driven by pervasive immorality, virus infections, drug dependency, poverty, poor housing, poor health and education services and high medical bills had caused unprecedented bitterness amongst citizens and pressure on policy makers and financial planners for change.
- Frightening media reports about global warming and climate change had wrapped people in its resonance. People are clamouring for new ways of energy production and consumption to stop the destruction of the earth’s sensitive natural life and are pushing new and alternative technologies hitherto regarded as unaffordable.
- Excessive consumption, destruction of natural resources and awareness of the future effect thereof on the natural resources of the earth is gathering momentum and inspiring new causes and movements to promote the sustainable production of food and materials.
This civic, consumer and employee environment does not make a pretty picture for those lonely souls at the helms of organizations responsible for shareholder wealth and the common good.
Invariably they are drained and depressed by their accountability, their legacy and the emotional resonance of civic, consumer and employee disengagement. They are reaching out and back into history for inspiring lessons in social innovation and socially responsible governance.
There is a pervasive feeling around the world that this century will become a defining age in the life of this planet and its people and that failure cannot be an option. There is less than one human lifetime left to find the planet saving solution.
The world now needs a culture of quantum social healing and caring, which leverages enlightened self-interest, social responsibility and natural vitality in all domains of social activity in founding the future security of the human race on earth. This culture will be the hope and legacy of gracious leaders.
The Responsible Culture Model
A culture of quantum social healing and caring will have as stabilizing force the vision, values and rites of harmonious socialization pursued by communities for centuries. There are very few secrets to be discovered. There is nothing new. Essential wisdom is in the public domain.
The benefits to humanity of cooperation, collective creativity, self-realization, goodwill, kindness, compassion, gratitude, temperance and frugality need not be argued. There is no need for a business case. The vision of a pristine planet sharing its vital life forces, sanctuaries and resources with healthy communities in harmonious sustainable livelihoods is what people dream of.
The Responsible Leadership Action Framework
The primary task of responsible leadership is to induce meaningful engagement. Engagement is a citizens or worker’s degree of positive or negative emotional attachment to a community, society, organization or team and their role, family, friends and colleagues.
Engagement is induced by a value proposition that accrues from following actions:
- The shaping of a central focus for energy investment and credible reasons for hope;
- Inspiring people with personal confidence, hope and faith;
- The setting of multiple modality targets and release of resources for achievement;
- The setting of policies for compensation, wellness and development that resonate with the minds, spirits, hearts and souls of people;
- The vigorous empowerment of worthy successors and social innovators;
- The definition of new boundaries for social and natural conservation excellence;
- The urging for and display of self-discipline and restraint on passions and materialism and for clinical temperance and frugality.
This framework informs a new competence model for responsible leadership. The competence model will be explored in forthcoming articles. The design of a compensation model that soothes the rebellion about executive pay will be given attention in these articles.
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