Performative Morality in Leadership

sanctimonious
a student of character
a vile dissembler

Character matters.  Great leaders have great character. You can’t have one without the other.

Self-Awareness matters. Great leaders are self-aware. You can’t be one without the other.

Empathy and Compassion matter.  Great leaders are, as appropriate empathetic and/or compassionate. You can’t be one without the other.

Ego matters. Great leaders are cognizant of their egos and tame themselves when ego is driving a decision. You can’t be one without the other.

Morality Matters.  Great leaders have accurate moral compasses and assess the morality of the decisions they take.  You can’t be one with doing so.

Fairness Matters. Great leaders are fair. You can’t be one without the other.

Mutual Respect Matters. Great leaders respect the people they lead.  You can’t be one without so doing.

Honesty and Integrity Matter. Great leaders are incorruptible, honest and consider their reputation and integrity as far more valuable than compensation and power. You CANNOT lead if you lack these traits.

I am a moral hypocrite.

You are a moral hypocrite.

Hypocrisy is part of the human condition. Most of us struggle to improve.  A few merely downgrade the discomfort and, rather than trying to reconcile the incongruent behavior, double down on their sanctimony.

Every human over the age of 5 has done something hypocritical. As imperfect beings, we all struggle with our egos, morality and virtue. Mostly our transgressions are minor and we at least try to do better.

We owe ourselves some forgiveness and compassion.  Repeated failure – in this case occasional hypocrisy – is guaranteed in life.  Self-awareness helps us recognize these moments and, ideally avoid repeating them. This is personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility is important.  We live in societies where, despite a constant blast of media telling us otherwise, a high level of civility is critical to that society’s survival.

Personal responsibility, made easier when one has a significant degree of self-awareness is even more important for the official and unofficial leaders of a society.

Hypocrisy in leadership is far more impactful than the occasional incident of hypocrisy in our personal lives.  Why?  Because leaders have followers. Leaders are role models. The behavior of our leaders impacts many.

Sanctimony in Leadership.

A fouler form of hypocrisy, particularly when it comes from a leader is performative morality.   Sanctimony. Professing to espouse and enforce virtue and moral goodness while doing the opposite in their personal life.

Having little or no commitment to personally adhering to the ethical values a leader espouses is performative morality.

Leaders are often place them self in the role of their society’s (or institution’s) moral authority. When a leader is not personally committed to the values, they claim the authority to enforce for others, it is a massive betrayal of public trust.

It’s vile.

It’s reprehensible.

It’s insincere.

It degrades trust in all leaders and in the institutions they lead.

It establishes a permission structure for others to do the same – thus performative morality can become viral.

Why would a leader do this? Plenty of reasons:  personal gain, personal brand management, manipulation of followers, perpetuating their positions of power or a psychological need for public validation.

Meletus Syndrome.

Leaders, rightfully, are held to a higher standard.  They certainly are not perfect, but those who accept their personal hypocrisy, who feel no inner conflict, who fail to be concerned that their personal behavior is at odds with their public pronouncements are enormously damaging to the societies they lead.

Meletus condemned Socrates for corrupting the youth of Athens with his moral teachings. Yet Meletus showed no sign of actually caring about the well-being of the youth or the morally corrupt things Socrates was purportedly teaching them – rather he was making the accusations for political gain.

Performative morality is clearly not new.  However, the rise of social media has enabled “influencers” and leaders to emerge from all corners of the internet and has provided more traditional leaders with a larger and ubiquitous megaphone. As a result, incidences of performative morality among leaders have become more common and more pronounced.  It isn’t something you read about from time to time (Plato’s Apologies). It something blasted at you on a daily basis.

It's no wonder our institutions (government, corporate) are viewed with such distrust today. 

So What?

Because performative morality is so acute and public now, and because we have placed such high expectations on our leaders (mostly justified, sometimes unrealistically high) the problem is endangering civil society, governments and institutions. While these leaders have betrayed public trust and should be held to account, they also shine a light on a system that enabled their duplicity.  This is an opportunity for good people and great leaders to create systems less vulnerable to performative moralists.

 If we don’t, then we are left with performative morality’s corrupting effects. Who will invest in government, institutions and organizations that enable people like Meletus to lead?

Who will trust our leaders regardless of whether they are performing or not?  We will just assume they are performing.

Ultimately and most dangerously, performative moralists foster the belief that our values are flexible and more dependent on public validation than internal conviction.

Prescription?

As a society we need to ensure our leaders are held to a higher standard. Ideally, we focus on appointing leaders who are self-aware, and have a track record of moral integrity, consistency and honesty.   Occasionally we will get it wrong.  When we do we need to hold those leaders to account via loss of the position, legal action or any legal and effective means of removing that person from their leadership position.

Leaders themselves can have the largest impact. Those who are morally credible and honest can call out those who are not.  Fear for one’s personal position, fear that prevents moral leaders from doing so, indicates a failure of leadership too.

Moral courage matters in leadership.

Performative morality automatically disqualifies one from the honor of being a leader.