@Stephen – yes moral leadership is certainly not without debate and you are right, its the foundation of morals themselves that is usually debated. I think whether you feel that morals come from personal teaching, nature, the university, God or wherever, its living by them and doing what is right based on those morals that is needed for moral leadership. There are some obvious ones where ethics and consideration of others (the golden rule) is more important than power, market share or money. That the kind of morals I see often broken in business and the way I stay away from. I’m glad I’ve made you think more on this and thanks for the great comment and thoughts on this.

I think I agree with most of this article. One of the things that people struggle with is what is moral and who gets to decide. I have my opinion and I know others have different ones so to me the key is whether you have one or not and whether you follow it or not. I think that this is what you were trying to convey, at least the way I read it.

Ultimately we all have to decide for ourselves, but I think nature provides the basic guide. The reason many cultures agree on so many of the basics is because the nature of reality requires that human beings act in a certain way if they are to thrive. Acting against our nature or the reality of the universe will lead to failure in the long-term.

Thanks for stimulating topic.

Anyway, thanks for continuing with a comment and the related article, glad you stopped by.

@Dragos – Thanks for the additional thoughts, it is a tough topic to cover without stepping on some toes. Your first points though about a leader enforcing the structures they are elected may be true in today’s leadership expectations but I don’t think they means it is also moral. There are elected leaders who are expected to make money and nothing else, regardless of their ethical decisions or morals that are disregarded when making them. Look at all the politic and environmental “leaders” that continue to destroy and harm so many people, nature and habitats. Is that leadership? It certainly isn’t moral leadership when it is a selfish based greed driven decisions. Usually those are supported by the elected, scary thought. Often the “right” way to lead is in fact one that takes things away from the focus of the electing and the structures in place to support that, wouldn’t you think?

From this perspective, I think there is a global crisis for leadership all together, not for “moral leadership”. It seems that the core values of leadership have been touched with a sense of irresponsibility and – allow me to say it – stupidity.

Leadership is carrying for others as much as you care for yourself, not less.

That’s a tough topic to write about, Mike, but you did it great.

@Jonathan – Great to resonate on this with you Jonathan. It’s a topic I feel I could right much more about and while it is not always agreed on in business, I have learned that any costs (personal or financial) are always worth doing what is right from a moral ground. Leadership needs this exactly so I to am prepared to stand my ethics when the times arise.

There is certainly no shortage of leaders, unfortunately, there are of moral leaders.