Do Leaders Have to Follow the Rules?

May 2, 2007 — -- Leadership. The corner office, the tough decisions, the ability to determine priorities, the perks, the press, the paycheck (pardon me, but alliteration is something I do in my sleep) -- most of us would agree that these are all components of leadership.

But do leaders also share a responsibility to follow the rules? The rules they've established for everyone else to follow?

As a former adjunct professor for MBA students, I'll employ a case study method to explore this question. Case study No. 1 is Paul "I'm the victim of a smear" Wolfowitz.

If Wolfowitz was a midlevel manager in the World Bank, it's likely he would have been fired for pushing for a big raise for a girlfriend. Let's face it, if he worked for your company he would have long since been hustled out of the building by security guards.

But Wolfowitz isn't a midlevel manager, he's calling the shots. And though bloody and battered, he continues to hang on, to the detriment of the organization. OK, that was a bold statement. But I've studied many organizations who were being led by someone being beaten up by the press, in the courts, etc. And it's not a pretty sight.

Heck, organizations have enough trouble focusing on what needs to be done when all of their ducks are in order. Leaders need to understand that when they become too much of a distraction, they must go. Any other course of action is just too dangerous to the vitality of the organizations they're leading.

And we're not talking about a dry cleaner or a convenience store. Wolfowitz is running the World Bank -- far too much is at stake to have that organizations limping along.