Spirit of Leadership

INTRODUCTION the mention of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Martha Stewart, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Catholic priests tells the story of our culture of defective leadership. Moral defects; abuses of power, privilege, and trust; misuses of resources; corruption; and hypocrisy have become associated with leadership today perhaps more than at any other time in history. Morality, ethics, principles, convictions, standards, faithfulness, transparency, trustworthiness, and honesty are rare commodities in the field of contemporary leadership. Why is true leadership so difficult to find? OUR CHEATING CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP One day, as I settled in to my seat on a plane trip to address a group of leaders on ethics and morality in leader ship, I was shocked to discover, in the copy of the American Way magazine in my seat pocket, an article by Joseph Guinto with this title: “Lie, Cheat, and Steal Your Way to the Top.” The subtitle read, “Everyone’s doing it, right? But what’s our cheating culture really costing us, and where and when does it end?” Obviously, this subject caught my eye, and I plunged into reading the content. The article exposed and detailed the corrupting web of cheating as a culture at all levels of Western society, includ ing the highest offices of leadership, and it talked about the “trickle-down corruption effect” taking place. Here are some facts contained in the article that I think are notewor thy: “Employee theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the U.S.A....the total cost of occupational fraud—mainly accounting schemes—was $600 billion in 2002...twice what it was in 1997.” The article said that one of the results of this

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