We at Management Futures spare no effort, hardship or expense in our relentless search for the leadership holy grail! Picture your present correspondent for example, cold cerveza in hand, sitting on a sunny-evening balcony in Madrid earlier this year, reflecting deeply on the lessons dispensed by the likes of Covey, Peters, De Bono, Ohmae, Senge and Giuliani at the Spanish management symposium. It’s a tough job ...

Truthfully, what struck me most about all the presentations in Madrid was the close juxtaposition of highly innovative, daring and pathfinding ideas with what could be described as moral, philosophical and spiritual elements – ‘old wisdom’ if you like.

For example, Stephen Covey (author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) told us to leave a ‘Leadership Legacy’. He argues that in moving out of the industrial era and into the information age there still lingers in many organisations the idea that you can apply an industrial-era model of control to leading people who work with knowledge, information and ideas.

Applying his ideas, this old kind of leadership mindset is doomed because:

• People are now more rights-conscious than ever before and will not accept coercion from their organisational leaders
• In the private as well as the public sector ethical managerial behaviour is demanded by the public, both in serving their community and in the way they manage internally
• 24-hour saturation media coverage means the behaviour of high profile leaders is under constant critical scrutiny
• Workers demand more than just a living – they want their jobs to give them fulfilment and for their workplace to reflect their ideals and values

The demand for morally authoritative leadership exists at all levels. Just two small recent examples:

• A recent press disclosure on pension payments to former senior BBC executives paints them in a bad light because it suggests that their payments are unfair as compared with rank-and-file BBC employees.
• Sven Goran Erikson is fast losing some of his gloss as football statesman and wonder-coach as successive affairs and covert financial negotiations are dragged through the press.

Meanwhile in the global sphere leaders who have demonstrated moral and ethical integrity retain respect – think Kofi Annan, Gandhi or Mandela.

The demand is for leaders who lead not only with vision and flair but also with demonstrable moral integrity. The qualities looked for are not esoteric or high concept. They are eternal, universal, self-evident principles like fairness, honesty, loyalty and courage to do the right thing.

All purely ethical concerns aside, there is a simple and unarguable pragmatism about behaving ethically as a leader. A recent US study shows that managers in low-trust environments spend huge amounts of time and energy dealing with disputes, social tensions, politicking and interpersonal rivalry – some managers spend well over 50% of their time in such activity.

The costs of disillusionment, loss of loyalty and demotivation amongst employees led by poorly regarded managers is incalculable. In hard commercial terms, too, perceptions of corporate integrity and ethical conduct are cash in the bank, a vital part of brand value.

Stephen Covey got the first mention in this piece and gets the last word. He believes that leadership starts with the spiritual self. Consistent with his principle that one should ‘start with the end in mind’, he asked us in Madrid to think about our ‘Leadership Legacy’ – the lasting memorial to ourselves as leaders we would wish to leave behind. This legacy consists of the sum of your behaviours, the effect you have on others and the perception that others have of your moral and ethical qualities.

What will your Leadership Legacy be?