This post comes as the world continues to navigate the scourge of COVID-19 and all of its associated impacts - economic dislocation, social isolation, fear and anxiety, uncertainty about the future, and literally a reset of almost all of what we took for granted just months ago. What we have also come to experience is there is no common answer to the challenges we have been facing and how to get to the other side of this current reality. Governments and leaders around the world have opted for everything from extreme lockdowns, to calls for personal responsibility, to abject denial of the significance of COVID.
This past weekend, in the transition from 2020 to 2021, Albertans came to understand a different kind of reality when it became known that multiple elected leaders and political officials ignored their own government's words, advice, and "suggestions", and were found to have travelled not just outside of their own city/town but out-of-province and out-of-country. In some instances, these actions were further compounded by what seemed to be active attempts to deceive the electorate through social media posts. These same officials were wanting us to believe they were sending Christmas and New Year's greetings from Alberta while in reality what we were viewing were pre-recorded greetings, posted at appropriate times, while vacations continued in places like Hawaii, Mexico, and Arizona.
Judging from my social media feed and news reports, it is clear that much of Alberta feels betrayed - in some cases profoundly so - by its leaders. While the answer to the question why, might seem self-evident, it's important to dissect this outrage. From my point of view, this outrage comes down to a number of factors that perhaps we all take for granted or is unsaid about what we collectively believe constitutes good leadership.
Taking a page from Kouzes & Posner (Credibility, The Leadership Challenge), a consistent quality of leadership that followers look for is honesty. Leadership is not (truly) achieved through simply having a position of authority or power. It is achieved by followers being willing to follow a leader, through an evaluation that the leader(s) is someone worthy of their trust, and who shares their values and goals. Followers must know they can trust their leaders. A failure of honesty poisons the environment and the relationship between leader and followers. Honesty, trust and integrity. By failing to Model the Way (Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership), by failing to set the example and holding themselves accountable to their professed values and standards, Alberta leaders have significantly betrayed the trust of their constituents, have damaged their leadership credibility, and have diminished their legitimacy to lead through the current health and economic challenges facing this province.
This government has only made a bad situation worse through failing to take personal and collective responsibility for actions, providing reasons why their actions were acceptable under current (unclear?) guidelines, and making half-hearted and belated apologies for their actions.
The majority of Albertans believe they have been making significant voluntary and involuntary sacrifices for the past year. They have lost income or entire jobs/careers, put educational/career plans on hold, become teachers for their young children, socially isolated from family and friends, cancelled vacation plans, and in many other ways put their lives on hold. Their outrage suggests they were operating on the belief that these sacrifices were shared by their leaders, only now to have those beliefs proven false, their faith and trust misplaced. They not only feel betrayed, they feel they have been taken as fools for believing in the common cause.
This is where I believe the heart of this matter lies. What I believe accounts for the profound and widespread outrage at the moment is not just the immediate act of ignoring public health recommendations. We feel not just betrayed but duped. What the actions of our provincial leadership seem to demonstrate is a distinct lack of respect for their followers, for the electorate, and for fellow citizens. We now believe we foolishly held the same values and commitments as our leaders. By the actions of our leaders, this facade has been shattered. The rules were only ever for us, not leadership or the inner circle. We are not worthy. Let us eat cake.
Where to from here? Can trust and credibility be restored? Will Albertans forgive and forget? Only time will tell and, at some level, I'm sure political calculations suggest a two-year window until the next election is an eternity providing ample opportunity for resurrection.
It's About Leadership! It always has been. For me and I believe for most Albertans, leadership - exemplary leadership - is defined by integrity, honesty, credibility, shared pain, and shared sacrifice. So far our provincial leadership has failed the test.
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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions
gregh@breakpoint.solutions
www.breakpoint.solutions
780-250-2543