To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards.
It has been frequently remarked that a structure, such as a country, a company or an organization, needs an effective leader bringing speeding development, as a sage directing the positive and active staffs. And the speaker in this issue claims that such an official serving the public must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards .In my opinion, although the view is deserved to emphasize, his claim is absolute.
There must be indispensable to try the best to maintain the ethical and moral standards, indeed. A leader with the highest ethical and moral standards will gain the support of the majority of the public. For example, Gandhi aimed at leading the nonviolent protest to extricate the Indian community from the domination of Britain. For the great career, he gave up the wealth and the achievement in South African. Although he is assassinated eventually, his tenets as the legacy were inherited by descendants.
However, at first glance, some leaders always like to play such a role as to expose his or her family only for showing off the family harmony. Admittedly, it is essential to show the support from the family, but too much entanglement among the work and the family may decrease the efficiency even become destructive to the career. Although as a sage, the leader can only constrain himself or herself. Sometimes too many shows before cameras and microphones may make the family say or do something wrong, which may blot the profile of the leader. Or some sneaky acquaintances may offer the family bribes for misfeasance which will bring about corruption.
For some unfortunate leaders, they have to cope with acute crisis during the tenure. When their confronting the crisis, the dilemma is how to select between concealing the truth or show it to the public.Sometimes,the truth must be shown as soon as possible. For some disaster, such as 911 event, San Francisco earthquake, Katrina hurricane, all related public officials have responsibility to trigger the emergency alert to the unaware citizens, and direct the citizens to save lives and minimize the property loss. But sometimes some truths must be concealed until the crisis is eased. And it’s so significant to keep some actions or schemes in secret. In a war, a covert attack as a preemption may bring about the dominance. In peacetime, the collection of evidence on misfeasance must be concealed in order not to arouse the suspicion.
In conclusion, I think an effective leader must maintain the top ethical and moral standards – promotion of the public’s welfare. If the leader can avoid too much entanglement among the work and the family, and try to cope with crisis wisely, it will be beneficial to enhance the efficiency.