Public Sector Leadership LO22261 -Was: What is leadership?

Rick Fullerton (rwfc@odyssee.net)
Sun, 18 Jul 1999 12:39:13 -0400

Replying to LO22240 --

HJRobles@aol.com wrote in reply to LO22206 from Fiona Robinson:

> Morals -- leaders -- public sector. Do you think it is possible to find
> all three elements in the same place at one time so they CAN be assessed?
> If so, then I think any discussion of HOW they might be assessed will be
> one of the more enlightening (if not downright entertaining) on this
> listserv! Harriett.

Hariett - As a public sector leader, albeit not an elected one, I find the
above note strange. If it is meant to be humourous, then at whose
expense. If it is intended to be serious, then some evidence or support
for the implication that public sector leaders lack morals would be
appropriate.

As far as Fiona's earlier inquiry about assessing morals of public
officials, there are many checks and balances in any democratic society,
including media scrutiny, constitutional laws and declarations of rights,
party discipline, and ultimately the power of the electorate to vote.
Meanwhile the non-elected leaders are subject to merit based selection and
the rigours of performance management present in any modern bureaucratic
system. It probably is not perfect, however, IMHO our perception of
morals of public officials is shaped more by journalistic initiatives than
by fact or balanced review of valid information.

Finally, I find it much more helpful to consider leadership independently
from the context and value assessments that others may have. Thus,
leaders are those who achieve results they are committed to through
others. Beyond that basic definition, we might qualify 'good' leaders as
those whose objectives or methods we assess to be worthwhile given who we
are as assessors.

Rick Fullerton
Canadian Centre for Management Development
rwfc@odyssee.net

-- 

Rick Fullerton <rwfc@odyssee.net>

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