Ethical Leadership Necessary Evil

Topic: Is it possible to be an effective leader and also be ethically good? Does leadership require being ‘flexible’ with ethical values? Relate your opinion to today’s readings, explaining where and how far you agree/disagree. Include an example, whether from your own experience or from public life, of a leader acting in ways which appear necessary but ethically dubious. Do you think they made the right call? Why or why not? 


Leadership is a very big task to take and will never be an easy task either. I believe that to be an effective leader or a good leader at all, you cannot always be ethically good. One needs to lead in different variations in my opinion. Of course being good is a must, but in certain situations a leader has to be harsh. However, a leader should not be harsh for his own benefit, but for the benefit of his people.  As I discussed during class, my favorite example of being a evil leader with a cause would be the World War 2 bombings of Hiroshima. The U.S dropped a bomb on Japan killing thousands of innocent Japanese people, but they did it to end a war. They did this evil for the good of their own people, and in the end it was basically the end of the war. I think that the U.S did make the right call in that situation. I think that it was unethical to kill so many innocent people, but in the end they saved their own troops, and allies. Although the action preformed in the bombing of Heroshima were evil for Non- Americans, they were a gift for everyone else. It was necessary evil.