The 4 dimensions of Moral Leadership needed in a post COVID world
There are a growing number of voices calling out to leaders in a post-COVID world (of course we know that this isn’t an end date, rather a period of time). It goes something like this.
“We must NOT go back to how things were”
“Things need to be different”
“We have to seize the opportunity to create a new way of doing things in the economy, social justice and the environment”
It is also true that the call for moral leadership is gaining a new momentum. By moral leadership, we don’t mean leaders who are cleaner than clean, with no skeletons in their cupboards. We also don’t want to collude with the ‘speak a good game about morality, but in reality turn a blind eye’, definition of moral. A simple definition of ‘moral’ is, to do the right thing. Almost everyone feels aggrieved when they see someone who isn’t doing the right thing. ‘Moral’ is about principles, compass points, trust, equality and justice in all things.
As we try to grapple with a post-panic-COVID-world and look towards the future, what does moral leadership actually look like? What kind of moral leadership are we needing in these days ahead? In the light of COVID-19, if we were to run a moral leadership MBA programme for this and the next generation of leaders, what would the curriculum be? Whatever it covers, it needs to be able to impact on us as individuals, businesses, communities and nations, as they each seek to create a story for our lives going forwards. I would suggest that there are 4 dimensions to what needs to be taught in such a curriculum.
Firstly, leadership needs to create a Moral Consensus. These are the foundation stones that we all agree on, to build a different future. Kindness, generous accommodation, justice, equality, are all examples of Mandela’s principles that he urged consistently, in all his years of public life. We need a majority of people to agree on some fundamental principles of what is the right way to live. In December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted such a moral consensus for the world. It recognised the inherent dignity and equality and inalienable rights of every person on the planet. The global agreement said that if any one nation wanted freedom, justice and peace in our world then this consensus was the essential, uncompromising foundation for all members of the human family. That was 1948 and 48 countries signed up for it. Today 193 of the 195, have signed. It would be an interesting exercise to give countries the task of actively reflecting on their policies and activities and then reaffirming their commitment to this moral consensus.
What are the principles that we believe our lives, businesses, communities, nations, should be built on? What principles am I happy to sit under, even at the risk of my own discomfort? These principles sit under our environmental life, our health, our education, our justice system and how it is enforced, our business life, our political life – all areas of life. The job of leadership is to ensure that they are known and agreed before building can begin.
Once leadership has clarified and got agreement on the Moral Consensus, then the next leadership step is to exerciseMoral Imagination.
There are a few things that we know about great leadership and one of them is that leaders are people of vision. They are able to create a picture of the future using the eyes of their mind. ‘Imagine if…. we could get telecommunications reduced to the size of a cigarette packet, remove all the cables and wires so that the whole world could be interconnected’; ‘Imagine if…we could take your whole rack of CD’s and put them all in a device as small as a little box of matches’. This is what vision does. It creates the future. A word that has entered the lexicon in recent years is ‘re-imagination’. This is not just extrapolating what we already have, into a future that we don’t yet have. It is a disruption, a leap-frogging, a different way of seeing altogether.
If imagination is the vehicle of change, what we call vision, or the desired future, then moral imagination is the engine and the vehicle. ‘Moral’ gives the substance to the process of creating the future. Moral imagination creates a movie in your mind of the world that you want to see, built around your Moral Consensus. What would the world look like if people were doing the right thing in their business, their community, their family, their health system, their education system? What would people be doing in schools, in the social justice system? How would they be acting? How would they be dealing with this situation, or that situation? Without a clear, re-imagined, future built on an agreed moral consensus, then we cannot move towards a different future. Calls for a different way, achieve nothing. They are just the start, but on their own the call will evaporate with the next rush of Tweets on the next subject that has caught people’s attention.
How do we imagine the future to be, if it is different than it is today? I am struck by some ancient wisdom written to the heart of Greek-Roman world of the first century AD. People were involved in high levels of commerce, there were conflicts, lawsuits and all kinds of immorality. These behaviours were being imitated by the religions of that day where Big, Bold, Flashy, Magical, self-fulfilment, were all the hallmarks of status and power. Society was being corroded and eventually did collapse. Into this ‘normal’, a missionary spoke out for the need to find another way; the need to do things differently, to seize the moment and make a radical change. His moral consensus was built on love. Love as the core pillar of societies reshaped future. He then grasps the issue of moral imagination and asks ‘what would it actually look like to put love in the centre?’ He spells it out – patience, kindness, not pulling people down, but building them up, not trumpeting its own ego to impress people, not being rude or disrespectful or undermining others dignity, not out get for itself, controlling its anger towards others, as well as yourself, it doesn’t keep score against others mistakes, it doesn’t exaggerate success to make them look bigger than they actually are, it doesn’t hurt others, it loves honesty and transparency and humility, it protects people, especially the vulnerable, it builds trust, not pull it down, it sticks to decisions even when it gets tough.
Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev put even more flesh on some of these imaginations[1].
In our schools, teacher monologues would cease and dialogical investigation would flourish
Teachers would model and teach deep listening skills;
Classes would involve the students in critical thinking and problem solving, in creating knowledge rather than passively receiving it;
Businesses would become employee-owned co-operatives, allowing the workers to take responsibility for their work and for each other;
The work-week and work-year would be shortened, to allow time for an abundance of family time and community connections;
Quality health care and decent housing would be guaranteed for all;
Quality education, at all stages of life, would be affordable and available to all who seek it;
Our prison population would be limited to those who are a true danger to our society and the mission of the penal system would be devoted to rehabilitation, instead of punishment;
Extraordinary efforts would be made to protect and restore the environment for present and future generations;
Immigrants would be treated with respect;
Diversity of all kinds would be honoured and treasured throughout society;
A vibrant community life would offer people a vast array of learning, creative and civic opportunities;
Every member of society would feel woven into a rich fabric of relations.
You may not agree with all his descriptions, but it is a clear attempt at clothing Moral Consensus with Moral Imagination. It is easy to Tweet, “things must change”. However, the leadership challenge is what exactly will desired change look like? We know that it is not just vison that motivates, but rather shared vision. So, groups of people, rather than simply dismissing ideas like Ward-Levs, would build on them. The vital need of moral imagination is that if we don’t create a compelling picture of what we want the future to be, then we won’t move towards it. We will simply be left where we were. Moral imagination challenges the “it can’t be done” inertia.
The lessons of COVID 19 are that things we thought unthinkable, we actually did within days. We stopped flying and using our cars, we stopped unnecessary consuming and spending. We made the time to talk regularly with our friends and family and we acted together every Thursday evening to demonstrate solidarity in our appreciation to key people in our society.
It is moral imagination that begins in the future, not the present. It creates a compelling future and only then does it say, ‘how do we get there?’ This is the only path of leadership that has really proved effective in pulling down the unquestioned assumptions of twenty-first century living.
As we begin to create the future using Moral Imagination, a leader needs to be investing heavily in the third dimension – that of Moral Authority. Do I walk the talk? Am I a picture, an example, of the change that I am calling out for, or am I playacting and grandstanding? (hypocrite). Can the principle (Moral Consensus), that we are envisioning for our futures (Moral Imagination), be seen in my life (Moral Authority)? Authority is about author-ship. Who is writing the story of the future? Who has the pen? Who has the power to shape that story? Without moral authority, when a leader stands up to call people towards the different future, they will simply be speaking hubris, empty words. The result is no one will listen and no action will be taken. Trust will be diminished. Moral authority clearly is not about perfection. No one claimed that Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela were perfect, but they did have moral authority. Why? Because they didn’t try to hide the complete picture of who they were, there was humility, transparency and honesty.
The final dimension of leadership for change requires a Moral Imperative. Goethe said,
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now”.
Principles need to be turned into vison and vison needs to be turned into action by those who are living it out themselves. The power of an idea is in acting on it. Doing something. Making it happen.
Without Moral Imagination, our actions will be repeats of the past, not something new that people are crying out for. Without Moral Authority, our voices will sound hollow and not create trust. Without Moral Imperative, we will simply sit and chat and change nothing. Without Moral Consensus, we will seek a pathway that benefits the few, rather than the many. With all four, we will put substance into a different future.
[1] The Liberating Path of the Hebrew Prophets – Then & Now Nahum Ward-Lev Orbis Books 2019