The Importance of Having a Responsible Leadership

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Why do we need responsible leaders?
Some of the biggest problems facing the world today are climate change, terrorism, gender inequality, and food insecurity. All of these problems can be solved. Take, for example, climate change; vast evidence and literature demonstrate that humanity is the leading cause of climate change. Scientists have come up with ways to prove that climate change can be reversed or even stopped. While this information has been available for a long time, little has been done in the way of solving this imminent threat to our planet. Few nations have invested in finding sustainable energy sources and weaning themselves from the dependence on fossil fuels. There is a clear difference between countries that have invested in creating sustainable energy solutions and those that have continued to disparage science regarding the cause of global warming. The countries that have been moving towards sustainability have responsible leaders. While Norway is producing more green energy than it consumes, Trump was campaigning to revive coal jobs.
Why do we need more responsible leadership?
Everything starts and ends with leadership. Take some of the biggest companies that have ever been and those that have failed. There is a common element in all successful companies, leadership. For each company that has stood the test of time and or has risen to unprecedented levels, there is evidence of a strong leader who has steered the company in that direction. Take, for example, Steve Jobs, who is credited for making the Apple Company the behemoth $ 2 trillion company it is. It was on a downward spiral when he was rehired into the company, and in a few short years, he turned the company’s culture and fortunes around. His leadership skills shaped the culture of the company for the decades that have followed.
Similarly, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln were among many great leaders who left indelible marks in their designated positions. While their stories have become legendary, they were not the only people involved in creating their legacy. Rather, they led other people to change the world. Abraham Lincoln never took a firearm to fight in the civil war; rather, he united the unionists and motivated them to win the war. Steve Jobs was not an engineer or a programmer, yet he assembled the team that created the iPhone and many other products. These individuals who have left indelible marks in history did not accomplish those feats alone, but they worked with other individuals to change the world. In some cases, other individuals were unable to lead others to achieve those goals. For example, the south would have seceded if it were not for the visionary leadership of Abraham Lincoln.
On the other hand, there have been leaders who have left bad after-taste in the world. They also rallied their subjects towards egoistic, nationalistic, selfish goals that were not in the best interest of the many people. Hitler and Osama bin Laden were leaders who can best be described as enemies of the common good. While they managed to rally people to push for their egoistic goals, they cannot be discredited because they steered their subjects to push for those goals.
Some big companies have also gone under because of leadership. Lehman Brothers is an example of a company that failed because of a lack of visionary and responsible leadership.
Responsible leadership has been defined as the management of a corporation’s interactions with society aimed at addressing the corporation’s various stakeholder concerns and contributing to the multiple bottom lines of economic, social, and environmental performance. Being a responsible leader is making sustainable decisions that take into account all stakeholders, the environment, and future generations. The world has become increasingly connected, and today more than ever, the need for responsible leadership has increased. The challenges of our generation require the world to come together and collectively fight them. Take, for example, climate change. There is no single country that can singlehandedly solve this imminent threat to the sustainability of the planet. However, there lacks a unifying individual or element that can bring all the countries together to forge the way to reverse or at least stop global warming. Many of the current world leaders are nationalistic, and their governments are nationalistic, which hurts the efforts to collectively address climate change. Lack of responsible leadership has allowed covid-19 to devastate the whole world. Irresponsible leaders are making questionable decisions that are continually putting the world at peril. For the few world leaders such as Jacinta Arden, who took the threat of the coronavirus seriously, they suffered fewer victims, and the pandemic largely spared their economies. These issues highlight the importance of responsible leadership.
From whom should such leadership come?
Responsible leaders can come from any place. Any community, gender, country, tribe, race, age can produce responsible leaders. Previously, great leaders have come from all sorts of backgrounds. They have risen to the top of the world, where their influence has affected the entire world. For example, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, etc. These great leaders whose contribution to a fair society came from different backgrounds but braved the odds to change the world. Some business leaders who have changed the world did not graduate from the best universities in the world; rather, their backgrounds are as diverse as their abilities. No human is limited, and therefore, while some factors stifle the chances of success for some people because of their origins, tribe, gender etc. There isn’t one factor that has been proven to affect leadership skills adversely. Today great and responsible leaders come from all places.
Additionally, anyone can become a responsible leader in their capacity. It is not necessarily that the world-renowned individuals will change the world. Once in a while, relatively unknown individuals change the game. On the other hand, some people in positions of power have made questionable decisions or led people astray. For example, former US president Mr. Donald Trump was a climate change denier. Under his leadership, the US pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, handed mining and drilling licenses to corporations to exploit protected lands, among many other questionable decisions. Therefore, responsible leadership is not a factor of position or influence; responsible leaders can come from any background. You and I can become respo...