Welcome to Business and Politics
The Business and Politics Blog
Temper tantrums
Accusations of temper tantrums at No. 10 are gripping the media today and are likely to continue as we focus on personalities as much as policies.
So is this focus on personalities good for politics? The answer must be yes if we focus on the moral character of politicians. One of the most important questions I ask any leader either in business or politics is “what are the moral values that guide your thinking and your actions?” What depresses me most is that when they answer, most leaders have little idea what a moral value is.
When they start glibly talking about “teamwork”, “employee engagement” or even “productivity”, I begin to lose the will to live. You see, these may be desirable outcomes, but they are not moral values. Moral values are very specific. They include Courage, Fairness, Wisdom, Trust, Honesty, Hope, Love, Humility, Excellence… and wait for it… Self-Control, also known as Temperance. Self-control is the grown-up moral value that helps us to exercise self-discipline and patience. That’s why your Mum used to tell you that “patience is a virtue”, because it is.
It’s the moral value that’s so lacking in our want-driven, morally infantile, consumer culture. Temper tantrums are not only the actions of a 2-year old at the sweet counter, or the leader who cannot exercise self-control. They define the morally bankruptcy of our lives today. Perhaps we get the leaders we deserve.
Roger is a Fellow at Phillip Blond’s think tank ResPublica; and Professor of Organisational Ethics and Corporate Philosopher in Residence at the Cass Business School in London.
For more information or to contact Professor Roger Steare, click here.
[twitter]
THE THINK TANK THAT TALKS
Join our live debates
Join the debate with the Business & Politics authors and high profile guest panellists at our live events.
Archives
Latest Tweets
Website by New Time Media
Three resignations now at the National Bullying Helpline including Ann Widecombe. Whatever next?
Jeremy, I’m not surprised that Ann Widdecombe resigned. Christine Pratt not only betrayed confidences (after unquestioningly assuming that they were true and not, say, coming from undercover reporters). She also broke the golden rule for people dealing with folk who may have been abused: do not reveal the allegation to the alleged abuser.
Roger, I like your moral characteristics – perhaps a good set of goals for employees too?
Hi Roger
Do you think that business and political leaders dont discuss true moral values with you because they havent got them? In many cases they absolutely have strong moral values but because they feel that these things are so personal to them (e.g Love) they may not think to mention them in workplace coaching resorting instead to what they have been taught in management courses – confusing leading with managing.
It can be hugely liberating for a leader to ‘rediscover’ their key values and be encouraged to use them as tools to guide themselves and others in the workplace.
One of the real challenges is for a leader to be truly authentic in both their work and their home life – to drop the work ‘mask’ and actually defend their personal moral virtues in the face of opposition (perceived but often real)from others.
Big issue – how do we ensure ( other than through parents, which for some young people are sadly lacking) the teaching and acceptance of key moral values in young people to create the leaders that we want for our and their futures?
What worries me is the poor standards of BBC journalism revealed by NBHgate. They put the story straight up on Sunday night when Mrs Pratt (tee-hee!) spoke to them – if they’d looked at the NBH website, it would have set alarm bells ringing. Next morning, Radio4 Today effectively blew the story out of the water with revelations about about how flakey the whole NBH story was – but it took two hours for the Beeb to put that on its News website.
It has been a long time since you could rely on the BBC News, and this is just the latest case.
The number of concerns I have that are highlighted from the whole NBH-HR&DM saga. The lack of oversight and verification not only by the journalists, but by those who were informed about these issues last year.
The damage that has been done, is still to be fully appreciated. The past dodgy so called independent reports written for tribunals is another knock on affect.
And the issue of employees who genuinly need support has been compromised. Employees within the public sector are particuarly of concern as they may feel they cannot trust any agency. Using vulnerable people to further either commercial and / or political interests is to put it mildly regrettable.
At some time in our lives we shall all have experienced abuse or bullying to some degree, either in the workplace or in the home. It is an abuse of our status as adults to assume that we cannot deal with the vast majority of these experiences ourselves. A bad boss is usually undone by their own actions.
The real danger in the exposure of GB as a bullish tantrum prone leader is to give him something he has lacked to date – a personality which vast hordes of the great British public can easily identify with.