Leaders or Criminals?

I grew up with a dad who is a defense attorney. I often worked in his office, and over time, I had interactions with a number of his clients. I liked some of them quite a bit. Granted, their “code” and society’s “code” didn’t perfectly overlap—hence their need for a defense attorney—but these were people who were true to themselves and could still be described with words like “honorable.”

No kidding.

Think Robin Hood, or Leon from The Professional. Both characters clearly run afoul of societal norms for thieving and killing, respectively, yet both understand their actions and are guided by a clear set of rules. Real life example: my father had a client once who had committed a hit. The guy’s defense was, “The man I took out was a nasty, bad guy who needed to be killed.” And he didn’t use that defense to try and go free; he never pretended he was anything other than guilty. All he wanted was to avoid execution. (Which he did; he’s currently serving a life term.) Agree or disagree with it, there is a code there.

I think it’s interesting to think of these characters when considering our modern day leaders. Leaders are often misunderstood, and I’ve frequently come to their defense. But baked into my psyche is the idea that a defense doesn’t always mean “protection from guilt.” Sometimes, as with my dad’s client, it’s a matter of degrees.

As you consider the place where you work today, what kind of boss do you have? Someone who does her best with with imperfect information? Someone who’s code is not quite aligned with society’s? Or someone who’s amoral—who’s grown tone deaf to the very notions of “rules” or “codes”?

And what’s the basis for your analysis?

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.