Blog about Leadership

I have a phrase that I live by: to be and to become. The essence of my quote is that I am not just who I am with my knowledge, skills, and experience, but also in who I have the ability to become. Longfellow articulated the idea as, “We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” It’s a state of mind and a direction of focus.

Paul Wolfowitz is encountering a tough reality; read about it here. He slipped up or, more accurately, he was caught slipping up. His leadership and management abilities are now questioned and he is appealing for a second chance. Wolfowitz is facing the correlation between leadership and ethics as I’ve written about in a previous article.

I honestly believe that a person in the position of power and authority should not be given a free pass. He screwed up, but this is not a mistake of youth or inexperience as then he would not be qualified for his position. He violated the trust and confidence of those who appointed him to the position. He violated the ethical conduct of which he was bound. While everyone should have the opportunity to start over and if need be start a new, we need to hold leaders accountable for violations of leadership/ethics. Paul Wolfowitz should resign from his position. If he does not resign, he should be relieved of his position by the Board of Directors for the World Bank.

To be and to become. Paul Wolfowitz may judge himself by what he may be able to do, but his promises to change to “management style” are in line with judging his management ability by what he may be able to do and not by what he has done. The reality he must accept is that the rest of the world judges him by what he has done. What he did was a clear violation of ethics and a violation of the trust and confidence attributed to his position.

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