Our world as we know it has certainly gone through some events that have created uncertainty and leave many of us questioning our lives as we knew them.

The first challenge we have all faced is the pandemic and how to navigate through it, and the second incident has been the death of George Floyd and the current “Black Lives Matter” movement.  In each of these incidents we must be questioning the leadership or our country, and not just “leadership” as we have known it but “moral leadership”.

My guest and author of a new book entitled “Moral Leadership-Integrity, Courage, Imagination” is Dr. Robert Franklin a professor at Emory University.  In my podcast interview with Robert, we discuss the virtues of what makes up a “moral leader”.  We also both concur that the “moral leadership” that is exemplified by integrity, courage, and imagination for the common good has not been exhibited in this current administration.

Our current leaders don’t exhibit inclusiveness, cooperation, and inspiration to change what is wrong and to make it right.  The “Black Lives Matter” movement is a protest against such leadership and a cry for equality, justice, and peace.

Robert states that moral leaders are students of moral life and just society. Moral leaders should have intellectual curiosity and clarity about the moral life and the good community, about individual and social transformation.  Although conceptions of a good life and a good society will vary, any intellectual system must grapple with the problems associated with power, balancing the conflicting interests in a just manner, and with the roles of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation, reparation and healing in a good society.

In “Moral Leadership” Robert utilized the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to create the foundation for what a moral leader should stand up for as it relates to ethical issues.  Dr. King was influenced by leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Paul Tillich who was the author of many books but is best known for the book “Love, Power and Justice”  

If you want to learn more about “Moral Leadership“, I encourage you to visit Dr. Robert Franklin’s website by clicking here. I hope you enjoy this engaging and important discussion about what is required of a moral leader.