To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards.

In being an effective leader, the statement above claims that a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral grounds. With a qualification, I generally agree with such an assertion. Holding high moral ground can make the one an effective leader, nevertheless, there are times that leaders should act regardless of the moral and ethical standards. To illustrate the validity of such a claim, it is helpful to consider two distinct forms of leadership: politics, and business.

In politics, a public official needs to maintain the high moral and ethical standards in order to maintain the integrity and wholesomeness of the system he/she manages. Otherwise the ethical and moral failure of a public official can lead to corruption of the whole system. For instance, in the presidency of Ahmadi Nejad in Iran, he introduces a minister of oil who has a false PhD degree. The impact of such scandal has been for long as a disappointment for those who are honest in their endeavors, and at the same time, as a hope for cheaters to achieve power in high political positions in Iran. Hence we see that when the minister occupies a place with unethical procedure, the whole government system becomes vulnerable to corruption by opportunist individuals.

Now, in business leadership which competition exists, do leaders need to maintain high moral and ethical ground? Yes, I believe. A public official in business ambiance should also maintain the high moral and ethical ground because commitment to principles makes a system more attractive even in a competitive situation. For instance, consider a public bank during a stint of a manager. The manager can have a competitive edge over other banks because of respecting the costumers who are proven for the bank. Otherwise, if the public official of the bank acts so relentlessly and auctions the assets of the respected costumer who is little belated in returning his/her loan, the bank might lose its attraction, because of the voracious attitude of its leader which makes the bank not reliable in observing moral and ethical standards.

Nevertheless, there are times that effective leaders have no way but to act regardless of the moral and ethical standards. Notably in politics, where an enemy is threatening the world, as the Islamic Government in Iraq does currently, moral approach does not work. Toward a group who beheads people with ease and proud, there is no time to negotiate or precluding them by ways other than acting aggressively by waging a war. Of course innocent people will die in such wars, but the lives of many other innocents will be saved. Between bad or worse, an effective leader chooses the first one. Hence, maintaining moral and ethical standards cannot always guarantee an effectiveness of a leader, and there are times that public officers should ignore moral and ethical standards to act properly.

In short, as it is discussed in the body paragraphs, in politics a public official is needed to maintain high moral and ethical ground in order not to lead the whole system into corruption. In business also maintaining ethical and moral standards can be a competitive edge and can attract more customers and make the leadership an effective one. Nevertheless, there are extreme situations that it is justifiable to do without holding moral principles, for the sake of majorities.