These are the best and worst of times for ethical leadership. In February 2022, as Russia launched its unprovoked invasion, all eyes turned to Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s inexperienced president. Zelensky hadn’t been anyone’s idea of an ethical leader. A comic who had once played a fictional Ukrainian president on TV, his track record as a real president was mixed. But despite being the most obvious target in the country for state-sponsored murder by Russia, Zelensky dismissed offers of evacuation to the US: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride,” he was widely reported to have told a US intelligence officer.1
Zelensky’s courage was all the more compelling because contemporary examples ...
Get Higher Ground now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
