Good leadership is a function of competencies, character and commitment to doing the hard work
THE THREE PILLARS OF LEADERSHIP
Good leadership is a function of competencies, character and commitment to doing the hard work
By Gerard Seijts, Ivey School of Business
Joe Fontana, the former mayor of London, Ont., showed poor judgement when he forged a document to use government money to pay for part of his son’ s wedding in 2005, while serving as a federal Liberal cabinet minister. This led to a conviction for fraud in 2014, when Fontana was sentenced to four months of house arrest, followed by 18 months of probation. The fraud in question saved Fontana less than $ 2,000, while destroying a reputation built over decades of public service. It also subjected his family to years of pain in the media spotlight. As a result, Fontana is a prime example of the personal costs often associated with showing poor judgement. But it is important to note that you don’ t have to break the rules to be a bad leader. After all, it takes a lot more than simply following the law to be good at job of leadership.
Indeed, with all due respect to Senator Mike Duffy, the former political journalist was not vindicated when acquitted earlier this year on 31 criminal charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery related to his expenses. While found not guilty of legal wrongdoing, Duffy still clearly failed Canadians by allowing others to convince him it was okay to creatively milk the Senate’ s tax-funded expense system. According to the court, Duffy technically did nothing wrong. But like Fontana, he still showed poor judgment as a leader and many Canadians will now forever question his ethics and character.
Plenty of good people, of course, let themselves believe it is somehow okay to use technicalities or loopholes to break principles that sit behind rules, especially when they think they can get away with it or someone else says they can get away with it. But there is no strength in numbers in this case. And if you chat with Andrew Fastow, he’ ll tell you this is a problem of character that is fast approaching epidemic proportions. He sees principle breaking everywhere – in business and politics. And as the former chief financial officer of Enron, he knows what he is talking about.
Good judgment is required to put organizations on a solid footing because it instills trust in stakeholders. It also pays reputational dividends. Calgary’ s mayor Naheed Nenshi, for example, received widespread praise( and was even nicknamed“ Superman”) for the frank and highly visible way that he handled the city’ s devastating flood in 2013. Nenshi’ s
8 Q4 2016 www. amcto. com