“Explain to me why it is more noble to kill 10,000 men in battle than a dozen at dinner?” Tywin Lannister ( Game of Thrones) says in defence of that infamous Red Wedding ambush. This statement sums up his fatal flaw as a leader.He can’t see what’s wrong with murdering a pregnant woman at a wedding. All he sees is the result.
Good leaders never overlook human collateral damage. They possess what the Harvard Business Review calls a decency quotient (DQ).
Some modern horror stories come to mind, the mass sacking by Text, the abuse of zero contracts and relocating employees from one end of the country to another if they wish to keep their jobs. In this last example the new chief executive wanted to consolidate control and required all the Directors to move to the London office closing the former HQ in the North of England. Requiring Directors to unroot their families or live apart from them during the week. If this was indifferent to their families at least Directors were well paid. Not like the other staff at HQ who were guaranteed their jobs provided they relocated to London.
You would think the decency quotient would be high in Local Authorities after all they cover Housing and Social Services, the care of vulnerable people, but it is surprising how ambition , self preservation and savage budget cuts can lead to pragmatism and heartlessness. Remove 10,000 home help hours from frail elderly people, knowing the implication will be some people helped to bed at 5pm and not be seen again 10 am the next day even though this will mean lying for hours in a urine soaked bed ,cold and hungry. Reducing the number of qualified social workers and replacing them with unqualified staff thus increasing the risk that abuse will go undetected till too late. Closing mental health day centres leaving families and individuals to cope best as they can. Transfer residents from social service run homes to private sector homes because it’s cheaper despite the distress and anxiety this may cause. As the second largest employer after the NHS outsourcing care services leading to employees being made redundant or forced to accept lower pay. But the result will be a balanced budget!
So does this mean there are no good leaders in LA’s or Social Services? No of course not. It just means that compassionate leaders with a high DC’s are going to do a lot of things that go against the very reasons they entered this line of work. That they will make some very uncomfortable decisions. Reflecting the fact that even the most idealist leaders need to be pragmatic when the situation demands it but good leaders don’t deny, attempt to diminish or hide from the human impact of their decisions.
Blair McPherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
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