“Ultimately, it’s on the company leaders to set the tone. Not only the CEO, but the leaders across the company.” – Tim Cook
Among the many leadership and management principles that I have heard and learned in my more than 30 working years, John Maxwell’s Law of the Lid is one of my favorites. It simply means that the leader’s ability to lead sets a “lid” or ceiling on the people and organization’s overall potential and effectiveness. The leader’s quality of leadership is very important as effectiveness of a team can never progress beyond the leadership ability of its leader. High leadership, high potential…low leadership, low potential. As simple as that.
I do not personally know the people leading the famous local brands Lola Abon’s and Apo Ni Lola. But merely looking at their respective showroom already gives me an idea of the leadership behind these 2 brands. The Apo Ni Lola is really an apo of Lola Abon’s. However, differences among the surviving relatives on how to move the brand forward led one of the apos to create a separate brand, Apo Ni Lola. The store of the original Lola Abon’s is small and had few and more traditional products. Not much customer traffic. In contrast, Apo ni Lola Abon now has a newly built 3-storey pasalubong center, offering more and diverse products. Now considered the biggest in Mindanao, the store is almost always teeming with customers. The visionary leadership behind Apo Ni Lola allowed the brand to realize its full potential. He invested in new equipment and in training and developing his people. The leadership inspired its people to be more creative and innovative resulting to more customers and sales. With the owth of the business, they employed more people whose life also became better. The store atmosphere is alive and vibrant, where one can feel the pride in its employees. Sadly, the same cannot be said about the original Lola Abon’s.
The tale of these 2 Davao brands clearly shows how a leader can either enable or stifle the business and team to grow to its full potential.
The principle of a leader being the lid can also be referred to when we talk about the moral and ethical compass of a team or organization. Consciously or unconsciously, a leader’s personal set of values and principles serve as internal ethical guide for his actions, choices and decisions, affecting not only himself but the entire team. What the leadership allows and tolerates eventually become the standard. An ethical leader makes principled choices and decisions, promotes equality and fairness and creates a positive work place. These, in turn, foster trust, integrity, honesty and accountability among the members in the team. They know that they have to toe the line and do everything above board, otherwise, it will not pass the boss. Even when faced with complex ethical dilemma, they can be expected to make the right decisions, forthwith, because the concept of right and wrong is very clear to them.
On the other hand, a leader with poor moral and ethical compass has a blur vision of what is right and what is wrong. When making tough decisions involving moral consequences, their weak moral compass leads them to make choices that are lacking with integrity and principle. A wrong becomes right depending on the circumstances, the personalities involved and the rewards at stake. They easily succumb to temptation of short cuts, easy work and quick money. When you have leaders like these, it’s no surprise to see team members making the same choices and actions. Even when they know it’s wrong, it becomes acceptable because the boss is okay with it. Leading by example, to simply put it.
The scandals that envelopes the executive and legislative branches of our government clearly show how a leader’s moral compass influence the ethical standards, systems and culture of the team. Pocketing billions of tax-payers’ money, signing off ghost and substandard projects and flexing lavish lifestyle have become an ordinary fare in the different levels of these organizations. Were they done overnight? No! For instance, when these DPWH employees first joined the government, most of them have ethical standards. But when small misdeeds were ignored and overlooked, these employees were emboldened to do more, and more and more until a minor mischief became theft then plunder. Especially so when the people leading them are the ones at the forefront of these crimes. And why are these top DPWH officials so brazen? Because they are in cahoots with some of our top elected officials, up to what level, we can only guess.
There is no doubt that the 3 branches of the government who makes the law (legislative), executes the law (executive) and interprets the law (judicial) are now in deep scrutiny by the Filipino people. During the Sept 21 rally, there was a loud clamor to shut down and remove all incumbents on both houses of congress to eliminate all the rotten eggs. I wonder how many will survive this purging?
Drastic as it may sound, but perhaps this is the only and the fastest way to reform our government. This is not the case of nipping in the bud… it’s a case of uprooting the entire tree. A country’s poor performance is mostly a leadership issue. If we must, as a nation, become great, we need leaders who will inspire and empower us to be great people. When our leaders practice ethical leadership, they create a positive culture that promotes trust, integrity, empowerment and excellence among its people leading to sustainable success.
As an old proverb goes, “an army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.” A competent and principled leader can inspire a weaker group to succeed over a stronger group with poor leadership. My fellow Filipinos, are we an army of sheep led by a lion or an army of lion led by a sheep? My guess is as good as yours…
