【八九点钟小组】 I 43

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TOPIC: ISSUE43 - "To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards."

To be a leader, the person does not need to maintain the highest ethical and moral standards. Actually, a basic standard, which is honesty, of the ethic is enough. Moreover, in order to become an effective leader, the ability to lead the people to attain a certain goal plays an important role to an effective leader.

The highest ethical and moral standards, which mean perfect ethic without any moral mistakes, is not necessary for an leader. Nobody can promise that during his/her career there will be no ethical mistakes and some kinds of errors will not influence the leader. Take Bill Clinton as an illustration. He was a present of the United State. During his political years, there was a sexual scandal, well known to almost everyone, related with him affecting his impression to the public very much. However, this mistake does not make him leave the position, instead, he was still the present and then he led the people to develop the economic. Thus, from this example, we can notice that people can forgive a leader if he/she made a moral error.

Even though the leader does not necessarily need to maintain a highest moral standard, he/she ought to reach a basic level, which is honest. Honesty is the most fundamental moral quality and a premise of a leader. Without it, people will not trust the leader. As a consequence, there will be no one listening to him/her and at last, the leader will have to leave the position. For example, Richard Nixon, another present in the American history, was not honest to the public. He used illegal ways in order to win the election and later he tried to lie to the people to cover the truth. These dishonest behaviors made him lost the people's trust and finally he had to step down. Therefore, the honesty should be maintained by the person who aims to be a leader.

After a person has reached the basic standards of moral, the ability of leading is a vital factor in the process from a leader to an effective one. The purpose of an effective leader is to lead the people to achieve certain goals. If a person lacks such ability, how could people follow his/her words and do the work as the leader's plan? Thus, in this condition, it is hardly for the group to work anything out. In business, the effective manager, the leader of a company, should be the person who can lead the employers to work effectively. He/She needs to allocate missions to the staff properly and lead everyone to work together. Only in this way, will this company get expecting profit effectively. Otherwise, if the manager fails to do the leading work well, the company will not earn money and the manager is not qualified. Hence, the ability of leading should be paid enough attention by a potentially effective leader.

In sum, a basic level of ethic and moral is a premise of a leader. In addition, in order to become an effective leader the person should maintain the ability of leading.