The Case for Moral Leadership

We are living in a world fractured by fear, inequality and a lack of trust. We are questioning the merits of both capitalism and democracy. The divide between the left and right is widening and, while we know what is wrong with the old order, neither side can define what the new one will be.

The challenges we, as a society, need to overcome in the coming century—from poverty and global warming to terrorism and ethnic strife—are both familiar and daunting. They are not necessarily bigger than those of the last century, but they have a different character. They do not yield to traditional solutions or conventional styles of leadership. The 21st century requires leaders who can navigate the unknown in an ever-changing world and bridge divides between rich and poor, public and private, business and philanthropy, profit and purpose, shareholders and stakeholders.

What the world needs most of all is a moral revolution led by leaders who start by standing with those who are poor, vulnerable and voiceless. That includes communities who have seen jobs disappear, who fear a shrinking future. It includes young men and women of color who find themselves disproportionately arrested and consigned to years in prison. It includes refugees fleeing violence and hunger.

It includes all people across fault lines of race, class, religion and sexual orientation. It includes everyone. We are part of one another, though too few of us—on either side of the debate—have been acting that way, maybe because somewhere down the line, we stopped listening to one another, at least to those who seem different from ourselves. It is within each of us to do what we can to cultivate more compassion and courage in ourselves, to act on behalf of those without a voice. It is to each of us to plant seeds of freedom, of dignity. It is to each of us to give more to the world than we take from it.

Moral leadership requires listening from a place of inquiry, not certainty. It understands that our individual and collective identities are complex and multi-layered. And so we have to take time to know each other, not make easy assumptions and characterize others by a single slice of their identities. To live that way requires a moral compass. It means moving from a place of moral imagination, understanding that empathy is essential but it is not enough. We need moral imagination to find the patience and kindness to know one another; and we need it to begin to dream of new systems that can hold us all.

We all have a choice. We can move from fear, and push ever further from one another, or we can move from love. We can use this moment to find the clarity of our individual and collective visions, to have the difficult conversations, to imagine together the future, a world in which everyone has a chance to pursue his or her own dream. We have the opportunity to make the world not just safe but whole. We have the chance to examine who we are and who we want to be, to find that we have within us—all of us—what we need to build a world in which every human being matters.