Why Even Good Leaders Lie. A Time For Change

"It's hard to get someone to agree with the truth ~ when the lie is paying their paycheck."

Ever wonder why good leaders turn into bad ones almost over night?

Or why an otherwise good person goes to Washington, D.C., genuinely committed to becoming an authentic public servant, only to emerge a short-time later as a totally self-interested, self-absorbed, pure-play politician?

I am here to tell you that it all makes sense. Sort of. Not necessarily what you and I might call good sense, but sense enough for us to understand. To understand, so that we can then nurture a new generation of leaders that don't do this.

This is a short-version cheat-sheet on why even good leaders step-in-it, and as a result, why the world we live in is increasingly all screwed up.

This is also a short-form leadership bulletin on what you and I can do about it.

To quote my friend former President Bill Clinton, "it's hard to get someone to agree to the truth, when the lie is paying their paycheck." Boom.

That's the whole ballgame ~ right there. The entire global leadership crisis, neatly wrapped up into one little sentence.

I wrote in my last book, Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), that there are two things in the world; love and fear. And what you don't love, you fear. And the reason the world is all screwed up, is that so many of our so-called leaders are living by fear.

They really have no idea who they really are underneath all of that bluster, so they fake it. Or worse, they copy and model the prevailing culture that surrounds them. Fear-based leadership is a go-along-to-get-along leadership style.

Fear-based leadership has some recognizable character traits. Here are some of them:

Fear-based leaders are consistently about the 'me' argument, rather than the 'we' argument.

Fear-based leaders are about what they get, not what they have to give.

Fear-based leaders suffer from a lethal case of short-termism. They prefer to 'get paid now,' even if that means it hurts everyone else later.

Fear-based leaders may get rich in the short term, but they rarely build long-term wealth. This includes value in a name, a marketable brand, or a bankable reputation.

Fear-based leaders often flip from one short term fix to the next, almost never actually resolving anything for anyone but themselves.

Fear-based leaders treat their clients like short-term transactions, rather than long-term relationships.

Fear-based leaders actually have their product confused. They believe that money is the product. It's not.

On the best of days, money is the bi-product of creating and delivering something of real and sustainable value. Of creating real value for society, customer and self. As a result of that, the entrepreneur or enterprise builder gets paid, and God bless them when this happens. They've earned it.

But fear-based leaders have actually confused the bi-product, with the product. And this never lasts. In this situation you may make money, but you will never build real wealth. Eventually the house of cards come tumbling down. Think Enron, Lehman Brothers, Ameriquest Mortgage and so many more.

You ask any of these confused fear-based leaders why they are doing what they are doing, and the answer is always money.

Why are you in business -- to make money, they will say.
Why are you an Wall Street investment banker -- to make money, they will say.
Why are you a doctor -- to make money, they will say.
Why are you a rap star or a professional athlete -- to make money of course, they will say.

It's the only time when the drug dealer on my childhood neighborhood street, and the businessman lost, and looking for his next victim somewhere on Wall Street, are the same dude.

Or take the guy who thinks that when he shorted an otherwise good company's stock, he made $50 million. He didn't make $50 million (creating value), he transferred $50 million in value that someone else made. And along the way he helped to destroy a company, jobs, vendors, and those that invested there too. This guy didn't just short a stock, he actually shorted America too. That's not capitalism, that's just greed.

Often good leaders lie because they didn't know who they were when they arrived in a highly charged environment. And not being secure in who they were, they become easily influenced by the culture prevailing around them.

In this environment it's easy to cheat and cut corners (because, they will tell you, everyone else is doing it too). It's also easy to begin to believe that the lie is some kind of truth.

The incentives structure around them encourages a certain type of behavior. And the penalty on bad behavior is just not all that bad. All bark, and no bite. In the end, the lie appears strangely endorsed by the society around them. To rationalize is to tell rational lies.

And so, unless you are a very strong person with a clear view of who you are, it may actually seem easier to live the lie, than to embrace the truth.

The fix is free. And it all goes back to that great Bill Clinton quote.

We basically need to do three important things over the next 20 years.

1. Fix the incentives structure in every aspect of our society, so that right behavior and right action, aligns with prosperous compensation.

I don't mind paying a doctor more for helping to make me healthier. To help me live a longer life with more well-being. I'd pay them gladly. My problem is paying someone repeatedly to simply treat my symptoms, because they aren't actually compensated to solve my problem.

2. Create a real penalty box for bad behavior that actually bites. A serious dis-incentive for leading by fear.

Why should someone who caused billions upon billions of dollars of real economic pain, affecting countless households across this country and others, simply get off with little to no personal impact? No meaningful penalty box. I believe in capitalism, but this is just plain, useless greed.

3. This fix is most important. Create and nurture a new generation of young leaders that (a) know who they are, (b) mean what they say, (c) say what they mean, and (d) actually do what they believe.

Numbers one and two will require a herculean effort by all of us, and at every level. In every office, every town hall and city hall, and in every city and state. But number three -- this we can do. Right now.

It's called role modeling and active engagement in our community. I'll go first.

Let's go.

John Hope Bryant is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), and is the only 2010-2012 bestselling business author in America who is also African-American. His newest book, due out May, 2014, is HOW THE POOR CAN SAVE CAPITALISM, and will be published byBerrett Koehler Publishing. Bryant is a Member of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, and co-chair for Project 5117, which is a plan for the rebirth of underserved America.

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Photo Credit: Marsmetn Tallahassee