Doing the right thing vs doing things right: a leaders eternal battle

Remember that movie starring Jim Carey, Bruce Almighty, where he got God's powers and decided to answer yes to everyone's prayers thinking he was doing the right thing, but in the end caused carnage? Certainly brings many leaders to mind, some just trying to do the right thing, some trying to be popular at all costs, some who actually have a god delusion about themselves.

I look at many high profile leaders now, constantly in the spotlight, every decision they make up for public scrutiny by a ruthless, often misinformed public, or agenda led media houses creating propaganda fueled biases in public consciousness.

I look at less profiled leaders, running smaller organisations but due to the nature of leadership expectations in modern western societies have to lead organisations in a diplomatic manner, involving people in decision making, trying to bring people with them on a journey and sometimes having to listen to boring ill informed rhetoric or questioning from subordinates with self protective mindsets, some without the ability or want to grasp the bigger picture.

Being a modern leader has never been so tough. One slip and a reputation that takes years to build could be destroyed in minutes.

From my personal experience of practicing leadership and studying other leaders approaches, the vast majority are simply trying their best to lead in a fair manner, look after their people and get the jobs at hand done as best they can.

I am ignoring ideologue based leadership in this discussion as they are completely blinded to pragmatic solutions and that type of leadership is dangerous to any inclusive modern society.

There of course are others who have ulterior motives or are just plain stupid, but what can you do about that, there will always be assholes and twits who get into power.

What it boils down to is that good leaders are caught in the battle between "doing things right" and "doing the right things".

I have seen arguments that "doing things right" is a tactical, transactional approach to leadership whereas "doing the right thing" is strategic, transformational thinking. I don't think its as simple as that, it almost makes "doing the right thing" the sexy element. It isn't, there are plenty of occasions where "doing things right" is far far more important.

"Doing things right" means following rules, living within budgets, treating everybody exactly the same, not letting personal agendas influence your decision making. Who could argue with doing all of these things, it would be a fair and just world we would live in.

However, "doing the right things" can often come into direct conflict with doing things right. Doing the right thing means humanity must be brought into the equation of decision making.

You may have to bend the rules because of an extraordinary external factor (think of Covid and how many rule books were torn up).

You may have to go outside your budget to secure a key member of staff in a highly competitive landscape, or there is an investment opportunity that will have short term pain but longer term gain and to deal with that another previously agrees budget line gets reduced, annoying somebody else.

You may have to treat a member of staff differently for a while due to a personal circumstance they are dealing with.

Your own personal agendas will sometimes influence your decision making, leaders are human, even the most noble ones can't ignore the odd benefit of the job.

It would be a sad world where a leader could simply hide behind the rule book at all times, ignoring the external environment or the human lives their decisions impact every day.

The best leaders are the ones who 99% of the time do things right, but know that from time to time, doing the right thing is more important. They put themselves and sometimes their reputation on the line to do so. They face pressure, heat and criticism for doing so but they sleep soundly at night because they genuinely believe they have done the right thing.

Here is the thing, sometimes they don't get it right. They make a mistake. Imagine a human making an error, the horror. Social media is full of people who are able to throw the first stone because they never mess up, I'd love to be perfect like them.

The moral of the story is simple.

If you are a leader, you need to learn when is that 1% where it ok not to do things right. That comes with a mix of common sense, age, experience and mistakes. Crucially, acknowledge when it when you do make a mistake, your not fooling anyone by pretending you didn't, humility is your friend.

If you work for leaders, cut them some slack, they are faced with making choices that you would hate to have to make, try understand their reality, let them explain why a decision is made without judging them.

If you look at leaders from afar and love to judge and throw stones, the onus is on you to try walk in their shoes, put yourself up on the platform from time to time, see what it is like to have to take the hits, let me assure you, its a tough station.

Most importantly of all, with the exceptions of the odd asshole or twit, we are all just trying to do our best everyday, we all have families and personal struggles, so just show a bit of kindness and compassion for each other, regardless of job tites.