Selflessness as the key driver of Ethical Behavior – Philosophy behind Moral Leadership Part 3

Is Selflessness Practical?

The selflessness of the business leader is also driven by another consideration. Any business model is a temporary endeavor. A temporary endeavor cannot result in a permanent or a lasting benefits, it can only cause a temporary outcome for all including the leader whose tenure is also temporary. Therefore for the sake of temporary gains if one puts ethics behind one would be having a long term personal integrity and reputation at stake. As Sri Krishna would have said in Gita - 

akirtim chapi bhutani kathayishyanti te avyayam

sambhavitasya chakirtir maranatatirichyate

"People will say things of disrepute about you for eternity. Those who are of great repute, to them disrepute is worse than death"

The leader who is selfless would never try to influence business outcome by following unrighteous means. In this case the leader is detached from the outcome and instead focuses on the means as well as compassionate enough to take into consideration the interests of the other stakeholders. Since the benefit of a larger number of stakeholders is being considered here there would automatically be long term values and benefits as outcome but that would not be the key consideration.

One may question here that if a leader is completely selfless and detached from business outcome while focusing on the means, what would motivate him or her to work towards business success? In other words, while ensuring an ethical outcome, are we disregarding the business outcome? Is this a practical proposition? The answer is yes, because selflessness is also ensuring a business success, thereby actually providing tangible benefits to the leader, although the benefits are not the motivating factors for him or her. For the leader, the real motivating factor is that the stakeholders are benefited from the business outcome, that it generates value for business and that the organization gains from the recognition and visibility that results from it. The leader here is driven by a higher ideal, a steadfast will to do good and to ensure a positive outcome for the organization, for business and for stakeholders. The other benefits for such an approach is that the leader commands greater respect from the stakeholders through such a spirit. The employees, vendors, investors, customers, analysts reciprocate the leader’s concern for it. Any organization is after all driven by people. So if the people are loyal to the leader and have high respect for him/her as a leader and as a person, they would always try to give their best for the organization.  This is the example of an inspired organization.

An inspired organization delivers more value than a motivated organization. Such an organization is at the level of Self Actualization in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. 

Selflessness of the leader also positively influences the other stakeholders as their trust on the business and organization is enhanced. The trust helps in faster decision making and there are less chances of conflicts. A selfless leader would not hesitate to convey either good or bad news to appropriate stakeholders. Thus risks and issues would be highlighted sooner. Transparency and visibility would increase and the organizational communication would improve. The fear of conveying bad news would be replaced by a sense of duty to convey accurate and timely information for effective management of risks and issues.

Better governance, control, financial discipline, effective decision making are some of the likely outcomes in an inspired organization because the leader would take all steps possible to ensure ethical leadership - including governance, monitoring and control, establishing rules that recognize value generation and overall trustworthiness. Thus there will be an all-round improvement in the various functions of the organization including employee welfare, customer communication, investor relationship, financial management and operational effectiveness. Productivity is only a smaller outcome of an inspired organization. The real outcome is accelerated growth and delivery of a number of favorable outcomes.

Moral leadership is one of the greatest contributors of organizational motivation and business success and lays lot of emphasis on ethics as a decision making tool. Thus the team and the organization would be inspired to follow course as “people always follow men who are the natural leaders, whom they admire.”. Moral leadership requires clear conviction, avoidance of impulsive decisions and commitment. All these qualities can be gained through a steadfast adherence to the principle of selflessness as conviction stems from self-respect, which we have seen is a product of selflessness, avoidance of impulsive decision stems from the same conviction and clarity of purpose and commitment is integrity in action, a result of selfless work. This is also the same principle illustrated in the New Testament – Do to others as you would like them to do unto you”. As Swami Vivekananda says, “The history of the world shows that, those who never thought of their little individuality were the greatest benefactors of the human race, and that more and more men and women think of themselves, the less they are able to do for others. One is unselfishness and other is selfishness. The more selfish a man, the more immoral he is. He goes on saying, “It is the quintessence of all ethics, preached in any language, or in any religion, or by any prophet in the world. “Be thou unselfish”, “Not ‘I’, but ‘thou’” – that is the background of all ethical codes. Why should a man be moral and pure? Because this strengthens his will. Everything that strengthens the will by revealing the real nature is moral. Everything that does the reverse is immoral.”