I ended up in Twitter Jail in under 30 minutes last week. Wow – that’s a new record for me.
It was during #bizforum and I got my Rebel Rant hat on over Greed and Pride in leaders.
Since I didn’t get to finish my Rebel Rant during #bizforum – I thought I’d finish it here.
First let’s talk about Greed. Time and again I hear people equate greed with success – from both a business and personal perspective. Say what?
Greed is defined as “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed.”
While that definition pretty much describes the behavior of many of our corporations today – I don’t think it’s necessarily the business goal to which great leaders aspire. Greed, is a major contributor to the mess we’ve been in. Thanks to greed, US corporations are holding onto record breaking amounts of cash, even as they rehire MORE jobs than we lost to offshore employees and leave US workers in the lurch. Is this really the Holy Grail we want to seek in business??
There will always be those among us who take greed to an art form. That doesn’t mean that Greed is a positive leadership attribute. At least not in the world I want to live in.
I think it’s time to evolve the measurement of business success – beyond profitability and cash in the bank. If we continue with those measurements alone – our businesses may grow, but will there be anything left of the US economy, or the planet for that matter?
Responsible business measurements – including human, global and corporate contributions – are the key to a future of global economic growth.
Then there’s Pride.
There’s nothing wrong with taking pride in yourself, your business, your accomplishments. Nor is there anything wrong with profitable success.
Yet pride easily transforms into ego at an inflection point where leaders lose their objectivity and we begin to drink our own KoolAid. That’s where the trouble begins… We lose site of our truth, believe our own marketing, thump our own chests, swagger in the knowing that we are above all others. And so begins the fall…..
It’s when we step over the line from pride into ego, from balance into greed that we take the first step down that proverbial slippery slope.
When Greed and Pride drive our leaders, we’ll end up living in a world where the rich are richer and the poor are poorer, where profit at any cost overrides fundamental human rights, where government is manipulated by the wealthy, where big egos see themselves as above the law…
Leaders who choose Greed and Pride cause Revolutions, just like the one in 1776…
Photo courtesy of Flickr and giveawayboy
