Leadership Integrity and the Broken Society

One of the things I talk about in my new book, The Leadership Test, is the fact that many, if not most, societies in the world are endemically corrupt. Corruption has spread like cancer throughout the system. It influences, alters, or stops basic processes such as commerce, capital flows, the distribution of goods and services, the expansion and delivery of education, the making of public policy and the like. It stifles freedom.

Poison at Arm’s Length

In America, we witness the constant flow of scandal, graft, and intrigue. Most of the time we view it with curiosity and a little disgust. But we do so from a distance. And then every once in a while, we take a hit. We all get cheated, ripped off, lied to, or duped in the due course of time. But most of us don’t worry too much about it because the probability of getting stung by the unscrupulous is still statistically manageable. The chance of taking a personal loss remains low in our society compared to most. In other words, corruption has always been with us, but we can live with it. Unless we’ve been the victim of a significant loss, we tend to manage risk the same way we always have.

Is it time to be more than a spectator? Is it time to do more than read about ethical misconduct? What about promoting moral and ethical leadership?

Opened Eyes

As you contemplate your responsibility as a leader, let me jar you with the real facts of a broken society, a society brought to its knees by corruption. Afghanistan is that society. Here are the facts from a recent United Nations study:

“In 2009, Afghan citizens had to pay approximately US$ 2.5 billion in bribes, which is equivalent to 23 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to the report. By coincidence, this is similar to the revenue accrued by the opium trade in 2009 (which UNODC estimates at US$ 2.8 billion). “Drugs and bribes are the two largest income generators in Afghanistan: together they correspond to about half the country’s (licit) GDP,” said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa as he released the report today in London.

“The report shows that graft is part of everyday life in Afghanistan. During the survey period, one Afghan out of two had to pay at least one kickback to a public official. In more than half the cases (56 per cent), the request for illicit payment was an explicit demand by the service provider. In three quarters of the cases, baksheesh (bribes) were paid in cash. The average bribe is US$ 160, in a country where GDP per capita is a mere US$ 425 per year.” (See the full article). (Also, for those interested in corruption more generally, I recommend that you become familiar with the NGO, Transparency International).

Integrity & Solutions

Here we have a society for which fully half the economic output is devoted to bribery and drugs. The entire nation has been sucked into a vortex of corruption. Now contemplate this question:

• Is is possible to reform such a society?
• If so, how would you go about it?
• Could you do it with more laws and law enforcement?
• Punishments and prisons?
• Could you do it with better policy, more muscular regulations, internal controls, checks and balances?
• Could you do it with accelerated economic development?
• Could you do it with the broad expansion of education?

The answer is that no single measure will do. Combined they won’t do. You would still come up woefully short. At root, civil society is based on the precondition of leadership integrity. That is why one of the tests of a leader is to “take an oath” to act with honesty and integrity.

Leadership begins in the inner world. Unless we bind ourselves to a private oath to do the right thing, we have no foundation for civil society.

Certainly we believe in the rule of law, but the rule of law is only enforceable through the unenforceable support of private citizens. It is the unenforceable last line of defense–a line of defense that is easily swept aside when leaders and private citizens buckle.

Think of all the nations that have erected constitutions after the American model. They look good on paper, but a corrupt society will chew up and spit out the paper and ink of high ideals. Such documents are dead on arrival. And so the nations return to various forms of despotism and desperation as they face the intractable problems of disease, illiterary, poverty, and human rights abuse continue. How can we help? With the standard prescripton of military might and economic aid? I wish it were that easy.

It begins with leadership. Where there is an abundance of corruption, there is a poverty of leadership. Where there is real leadership, there is a fighting chance.

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Timothy R. Clark, Ph.D., is president of management consulting firm, TRCLARK. He just released a new book entitled, The Leadership Test: Will You Pass (Oxonian Press 2009), and is the author of Epic Change: How to Lead Change in the Global Age (Jossey-Bass 2008), which was named one of the top management books of 2008.

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