Good morning, there was a glimmer of sunshine this morning here in Vancouver, so there are signs of summer on the way!
I’ve been reflecting recently about a comment from a friend recently who said, “part of being adult is choosing to do the right thing, even when it goes against what we want.” As much as I hate being an adult sometimes, I have learned that choosing the right thing is much better for me in the medium and long term, than simply choosing what I want. And this is most especially true in helping build my praxis as a leader.
Choosing the right thing to do is a mark of leadership. In most cases as a leader, it is not about what I want, it’s about what’s right for the organization, what’s right for the people around me. Or, as another friend puts it, “the greatest good for all concerned.” Now that’s not to say that I must act as a martyr, saying things like “don’t worry about me, I’ll be ok over here while you do whatever it is you’re doing.” Choosing the right thing to do is about my own integrity, my own ability to live with myself, knowing that I have made a difference for the organization and for the people around me.
Now one of the challenges I submit is that it is almost easy to make decisions in the best interests of the organization, if not the people. What interests me is do we do the same in our personal lives? Do we live with the same level of integrity about doing what’s right, and not necessarily what we want? I’ve been learning that when we talk a good game at work, and then behave differently at home, we find ourselves in very deep trouble; hurting the very people we love the most, and slowly but surely eventually losing our credibility at work. We reach moments of deep inner crisis and are often lost and confused, all because we didn’t choose what was right, and tried to get what we wanted.
It is interesting to once again quote Mick Jagger here in “Leadership Notes”; “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might just find, you get what you need.”
May this week bring each of us another opportunity to choose what’s right.