Effective or ethical leadership

It is not possible for a leader to be both effective and ethically good because there are a lot of components a leader needs to master in order to persevere his or her leadership position. There are much complications that a leader such as a prince faces that forces him to take drastic measures. According to Machiavelli’s “The Prince”, a prince can take necessary “evils” which are ways that are not necessary ethical but effective that will maintain the prince’s authority as a leader. Instances such as these is a major reason why leaders who wants to be effective must sacrifice being ethical in certain situations. An example of this is the leader Adolf Hitler. After World War 1, Germany was practically in ruins but from the ashes Hitler rose and took the responsibility of leading the country out of the recession. Hitler took many necessary “evils” to restore Germany to its former glory but was fantastic at hiding it. The people of Germany felt Hitler was ethically good and had lots of virtue, but in reality the success Hitler earned was all due all the unethical actions he took to fulfill the promises he had made to the country. He was one of the most effective leaders in the world at that time but he had compromised all ethical values to be that effective. On the other hand if a leader wants to be ethically good, he will not be effective. A leader who tackles problems on an ethical means basis will be taken advantage of thus losing all authority. An example of this was my last year’s chain president for the March of Dimes Chain Reaction I volunteer for. She could be defined as a “South” type of leader and she always finds the ethical way to solve any problem. The problem was that her co-workers started taking advantage of the fact that she was so virtuous that eventually she didn't have the respect of her co-workers anymore. This caused her to be an ineffective president and thus by next year she lost the re-election of the presidency.

Leadership is also much more than effectiveness and ethicality, it involves being flexible with the ethical values. If a leader really wants to become powerful he or she needs to be flexible with his or her beliefs to accommodate the opinions of all the people under that leader. Being empathetic and flexible will lead to the effectiveness that all leaders strive for.

Jinay Amin