Progressive Walk Doesn’t Follow Talk
by Miki Saxon
I used the following quote in a post about ego taking over startup founders.
Star CEOs grow dangerous when they see their success as destiny, their place at the head of the pack as the only path possible, rendering all of their choices justified.— Zachary First, managing director of The Drucker Institute (A 2013 Fortune article, link dead))
Obviously, it’s not only founders, but, just five years later, would you expect it to apply to so-called progressive managers?
It does, with a vengeance.
The (unfortunately) best (worst?) example comes from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The most egregious recent example of this troubling type appears to exist in Morris Dees, 82, co-founder and the powerful former head of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in Montgomery, Alabama. He was removed from that post in March, following allegations of workplace misconduct. Specifically, the leader of the SPLC, known for its doggedness identifying and winning court cases against vile hate groups, was accused of racism and multiple counts of sexual harassment.
Dees’ fall shocked everyone, except the people who had worked closely with him, according to a recent New Yorker essay by journalist Bob Moser, who worked at the SPLC for a few years in the early 2000s. The organization known as a “beacon of justice” as he writes, was in fact what another one of its former writers called a “virtual buffet of injustices.” Employees worked within a two-tiered system: People of color were hired for support roles, while the higher-paid leaders, lawyers, writers, and fundraisers were “almost exclusively white.”
None of us like our heroes to have feet of clay, but it is easy to start seeing through an “I’m doing good in my world, therefore I am good and can do no wrong.”
In other words, if I’m fighting them, I’m not acting like them and shouldn’t be compared to them.
Years ago someone my crowd thought of as a good friend stole my credit card and jewelry and another guy’s car, etc. When he was caught he told the judge that, since he had done good for us, his stealing was no big deal.
Doing good is not a vaccine.
I recently wrote about the importance of objectively; using it on yourself can help you avoid the “do as I say, not as I do” trap.
Weekly, take a hard, look at your own actions and compare them objectively to someone on the philosophically opposite side.
Any similarities should serve as a warning.
Do something about them immediately.
Image credit: Anders Sandberg
