The Morality of Leadership

I heard a chief officer tell one of his subordinates, “You don’t want to make enemies. You get enough naturally.” Your position makes enemies. You don’t need to make them on your own.

A few administrations ago it seemed there was crisis in moral leadership. Few of these police executives had the courage to confront issues on their own. Instead they had others do their bidding. One former captain told me he was directed by a chief officer to get next to a guy, gain his confidence and then submarine him politically. If he did, there would be reward down the road. The captain refused. The chief had a long-standing vendetta against the man.

We learn to lead from those who lead us. What they model, we often do. Rare is the person of moral conviction who leads through a sense of justice, fairness and gut wrenching honesty. I’m not talking about those who sit back and take pot shots at leaders through cynical negativism. That’s not leadership that cowardice.

As a young cop there were leaders I learned from and followed. Sometimes adapting bad traits and often adapting great ones. Leadership can bring improvements to a profession or danger to a team. You can see the result of leadership on squads. The squads where there is strong and positive leadership honorable policing thrives. I call it passionate policing. Where there is poor leadership the data shows lack luster performance, personnel problems and an identity crisis. That is the cops don’t understand their mission. It’s a paycheck.

King David learned about the morality of leadership. Bad behavior was modeled for him and he adapted those same traits at the worst possible time. In I Sam 18 King Saul saw David as a threat. Saul looked for a weakness in David and leveraged it to get rid of him. It was a conspiracy to commit murder. Saul had one of his confidants tell David (a lie) that Saul wanted him as part of the royal family. What an honor of wealth, position and power. David refused saying he wasn’t worthy. They reality was he did not have the money for the dowry. Saul knew it. So he told David the price would be 100 foreskins of his enemy. (A little twisted) That David could do. He was a warrior. Saul’s intent though was to get David killed. “I will not raise a hand against him, let the Philistines do that.” Immoral leadership has others do their dirty work.

Now speed ahead a few decades. 2 Sam 11 David is now the king. In the spring when kings go to war. David stayed behind. Ego. Self entitlement. Desire. Personal passion as opposed to professional excellent. David sees a beautiful woman and used his position and power to seduce her. He has an affair with her. She got pregnant and now David has to problem solve.

David brings her husband home from war. Of course any guy coming home from war or a long time away wants one thing first. Bathsheba! David feeds him, gets him drunk hoping this will put them in bed and cover his immorality. Instead the husband refuses and wants to go back to the troops. David sends him back to the war with orders to put him on the frontlines, in the heaviest of the fighting. No surprise. Bathsheba’s husband was killed.

David made two huge errors during his kingship. Both behaviors he learned from Saul. When the arrogance of leadership got to David, the modeled traits of immoral leadership came flooding to the forefront of his decision making process. He became manipulative and wouldn’t listen to loyal subordinates. One decision cost him a son and the other his favor to build God’s temple. Costly mistakes!

As I examine the leadership I have seen over the 35 years of policing I realize there are some good traits in most and some moral failures in a few. Some were excellent leaders with vision, clarity and purpose. Others were about personal power, position and self promotion. One thing I do know. When I get manipulative or quit listening to loyal subordinates, I’m in trouble. Those are mistakes I cannot afford. There is too much at stake.