Leadership Privilege: Casting a Long Shadow

    

        With great responsibility comes great privilege. At face value, there seems to be nothing wrong with that statement. Generally, most sensible people would agree to that balance. Where those lines seem to blur is when people in leadership positions begin to abuse those privileges. Most everyone has heard the phrase "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Certainly, power in itself could be the cause of the misuse of privilege.  However, what seems to be the more pressing questions are:  How do leaders begin to justify these actions?  Is abuse of privilege just the cost of doing business as a necessary evil? 

    We can't simply assume that all leaders who abuse privilege had the plan to do so at the beginning of their leadership journey. So, lets start by making the assumption that most people are generally and basically good human beings.  If that's the case, the "Shadow of Privilege" would appear to be directly proportional to the amount of power a leader earns and not related to the choice to becoming a leader while gaining power.  As one attains more power, the allure of taking advantage of that power, and taking certain privileges from the power increases.  Unfortunately, a theme forges where enough is never enough. I'm of the optimistic opinion that most people start off in their pursuits of leadership for the right reasons. These potential leaders wish to make a difference in a positive manner in the organization in which they participate. Over time, as their responsibilities, abilities, and powers begin to grow, small abuses of privilege may begin. It may start as something like a misuse of organizational time for personal time which then spirals into ever increasing privileges being abused. We may see branching out from a "time thief" to a "privilege for favor" power abuse.  Once one steps over the line with no push-back, then the constant line stepping begins to occur. As the lines of privilege begin to move further from the center, finally the lines become so blurred that the leader may lose track of where they started and why they began the journey in the first place.  

    Although, we all might agree that leaders do deserve more rewards than followers, I do not believe most of us would agree that leaders should take more privilege than they deserve. To me, this is the the real issue at hand. One ethical issue for me and many others and is a privilege abuse, occurs whenever someone in a leadership role attains a certain amount of power and leverages that power for more personal gain. Even more bothersome is whenever privilege is used to offer benefits or job opportunities to those who are family members and friends and are not qualified. This scenario not only works against those who are already employed as members of the organization, it hinders others who may want to join the organization, are more qualified than the appointed people by the power privileged leader. 

    Such scenarios contribute to a toxic working environment whenever a meritocracy is substituted for shadow's of leadership privilege.  When preference is shown to an individual or group in lieu of talent or work the assentation of power and leadership is most assuredly going to be short lived and used as an example of unethical leadership in the future of an organization. It's my belief that certain checks and balances must be in place in order to prevent abuse of privilege among leadership. As power grows, a concerted effort by the organization must be made to force leadership to adhere to a moral and ethical code of conduct from the very beginning. The deterrent here is setting the tone early in the leadership and power attaining process. The early, consistent, and constant reinforcement of the organizations code of conduct with how it applies to the stability and future engagement of the leaders in the organization is imperative. 

    Based on experiences within your organizations, what are your thoughts as it pertains to leadership and abuse of privilege. Are there situations in which the "juice is worth the squeeze"? Is a certain amount of power privilege abuse justifiable? Can an organization work in this way without creating a toxic culture? Do you agree that abuse of power privilege occurs over time and slowly? Please take a moment to share your thoughts in the comment section below. 

    

•