justify missing out on great chunks of our children’s lives. Lead-
ers of every kind of organization need to be thinking long and
hard about such issues as meaningful rewards for workers and
humanizing the downsized workplace. It would be tragic if the
recent scandals so distracted and preoccupied leaders that they
failed to address these moral and philosophical concerns. And it
would be even more tragic if the scandals were to cause business
to be perceived as an unworthy calling, just as political scandals
have so often tainted public service in the past.
As ugly as the recent headlines have been, I think it is impor-
tant to remember that our attitudes toward leaders are cyclical.
We tend to lavish disproportionate attention and praise on
them for a time, to treat them like royalty, only to turn on them
at some point and treat them like devils. Neither extreme is
true. It is worth remembering that for every Dennis Kozlowski
(the ousted CEO of Tyco), there are hundreds, even thousands
of able, honorable business leaders. And there are good men
and women at the top in non-government organizations,
community-action groups, colleges and universities, cultural in-
stitutions, and other nonprofit organizations. These are the
people would-be leaders need to seek out and emulate.
Let me give you just one example. I recently published a
book comparing and contrasting young and old leaders, titled
Geeks and Geezers. One of the impressive senior leaders co-
author Bob Thomas and I interviewed was Sidney Harman,
CEO of Harman International Industries. Not long ago, when
every day seemed to bring a new revelation of corporate mis-
chief, Sidney sent a message to the company’s stakeholders in
its quarterly report. He told them that the company does no
business with its mostly independent board members and out-
lined the mechanisms that are in place to ensure the integrity of
the board and the firm itself. He assured the stakeholders thatOn Becoming a Leaderxx0465014088_fm.qxd:0738208175_fm.qxd 12/2/08 2:52 PM Page xx