Remember when leaders could sidestep taking a stand on sensitive political or social issues by saying, “The business of business is business”? That aloof neutrality no longer cuts it, says Dov Seidman, founder and chairman of The HOW Institute for Society. “I think the business of business is society,” he says. “It’s community, and how we relate to whatever comes our way and how thoughtfully and principled we are.” A leader standing up for what’s right is the new expectation of employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Not to mention relatives at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
What It Means to Be a Moral Leader
Leading your team to do things right is only half the job. You also need to do the right things.
September 22, 2023
Summary.
Dov Seidman makes people think, hard, not just about what they do but about how they do it. He’s so focused on the “how” that he created the HOW Institute for Society, which encourages leaders to pursue a path of moral leadership. He even wrote a book called How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything. In this episode of our weekly live series “The New World of Work,” Seidman provides insights and inspiration about what good, moral leadership looks like these days — in an era of perpetual disruption. His central message is that the old leadership approach no longer works. He challenged viewers to come up with even one command-and-control-style mayor or big-company CEO or professional coach who has enjoyed success in recent years. He has a point. Our expectations for what we require from our leaders – with the glaring example, perhaps, of national political figures – now include empathy, vulnerability, integrity, and morality.