Leadership responsibility explained!

It all started with an inspiration during my Harvard Business School Leadership Program when Professor Deshpande asked: "What are our responsibilities as managers?".

He continued the lecture and Oracle v. PeopleSoft case study, while I started reflecting on my responsibilities back at work. I've found that I have tons of them which can be categorized into four groups: Shareholders/Investors, Team/Employees, Customers/Suppliers, and Community/Society.

I've learned that every situation, that came up in my head, affects one or more of these groups. And we are undoubtedly accountable for the decision-making process as well as the effect.

So what do we do with that? An important lesson from Professor Deshpande is to look at every situation with "LCA" framework (Leadership and Corporate Accountability), and that is mainly using the three lenses: Ethics, Law, and Economy. He further said:

The Ethical issues of Today determine the Legal issues of Tomorrow. And the Legal issues of Tomorrow determine the Business issues of the Day After Tomorrow.?- Professor Rohit Deshpande

What does this mean? For us to find a sustainable business performance zone, we should be responsible for our decision-making process by asking ourselves if the "decided action" is ethical, if it is economical/feasible, and if it is legal?

To give a clearer methodology and actionable items to this complex topic, you can ask yourself questions like:

• Am I comfortable with the likely consequences of this action?
• Am I meeting my duties and respecting others' rights?
• Am I meeting my commitments and my company's commitments?
• Would I be comfortable if this action were described on the front page of a respected newspaper?
• Would I be comfortable if someone did this to me?
• Is this how I'd like my leadership to be remembered?
• Is this how I'd like my company to be remembered?

The combination of all three lenses gives a greater confidence in the decision-making process and the result, even if things didn't go as planned.

So, what is our responsibility as leaders? (In sequence)

1. It is simply to design positive organizational situations for all members and protect others from becoming morally disengaged.
2. We do this by looking through these three lenses: Ethics, Law, and Economy.
3. To build all three levers: Culture (belief-based tools like ideology, information, and knowledge systems), Compensation (incentives-based tools like evaluation systems, compensation and rewards), and Compliance (rules-based tools like audit systems and risk management systems).

Now, ask yourself these two questions and genuinly reflect on your journey:

1. Are you fully practicing your responsibility as a leader?
2. Will you be ready and commit to rise to the challenge of leadership responsibility?

Share your thoughts in the comments section, and until next article, connect, be mindfully engaged, and stay hungry for knowledge.