Leadership is by example, in health and anywhere else

 

One of the slogans associated with the government in the 1980s was “Kepimpinan Melalui Teladan” or leadership by example. I believe it was popularised (if not coined) by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The concept of leadership by example, however, is an idea unique to Mahathir, but is one of the mainstays of any leadership framework or theory. Simply put, leaders lead by influencing the attitude and behaviour of the people. This is true of any leader, be it a class monitor, teacher or even the prime minister.

Late last year, I wrote about the problems which would arise due to the lack of trust in our leaders and, subsequently, institutions. I explained how this lack of trust would cause an active undermining of public health measures which are really largely dependent on self-enforcement and community enforcement in order to ensure success, not criminal enforcement.

Unfortunately, I have been proven correct – and it’s not something to be happy about. The complete erosion of trust is driven by the fact that from a public health lens, our leadership is just not leading by example. It’s a continuous case of “do as I say, but not as I do”, and this is what has also contributed to the current rate of rising Covid-19 infections, whether you choose to accept what I am saying or not.

My dad is a teetotaller and a life-long non-smoker. He continues to tell me that his decision to never imbibe either alcohol or cigarettes was due to only one reason. He, who brought up his brothers and children said: “I could never ask you all to not smoke and drink if I did so myself. With what face am I ever going to ask you not to do something I am doing? Would you even listen?”

Public health leadership works exactly along those lines. If you are going to ask the public to follow a prescribed set of rules or behaviours, you better be showing them that you are also following said rules or behaviours. If not, they’ll be laughing at your faces while doing it. Setting double standards, unfortunately, will not help either.

When public health laws and restrictions are enforced on one set of people while being ignored on another, resentment builds. When the group of people are leaders, then anger, distrust and hatred deepen. There are numerous examples of this exact recipe for disaster playing out in different scenarios all throughout history.

How do we resolve the trust deficit moving forward? Simple. Leadership by example. What do I mean by this? Well, let me illustrate via two very similar examples. Over the past couple of weeks, two of our previous top leaders clearly demonstrated to have flouted public health measures during their engagements. Interestingly, both demonstrated classic examples of public health leadership.

They admitted their error, apologised, informed the law about it and received their punishment. Did you not notice that the public positively responded to both of them by acknowledging how they took their “licks” as much as any common man did? Many agree with me that both of them came out with reputations untarnished out of these incidents.

In contrast, we have, over the past year, been regaled with multiple instances of those in authority or power literally getting off “scot-free” or given minor slaps on the wrist for offences of flouting public health regulations. What many of our leaders do not realise is that this is part of the price of being a public persona. We, the people, will hold you up to much higher accountability and standards compared to even ourselves. After all, as leaders, you are expected to be our role models and set clear examples – in health as well as any other sphere of public life.

The message from the public is quite clear. We expect our leaders to lead by example. And if they do trip up every now and then, they need to step up and take their punishment just as you and I would. Failure to do anything else will inevitably lead to further loss of institutional trust by a populace already disheartened and disillusioned.

There can be no exceptions. No favouritism. I see a glimmer of hope when a leader of a public institution was informed that he would be relieved of his duties. While it may have been due to a lot of factors, I like to think (and hope) that it did have something to do with the fact that public health SOPs were also clearly flouted (not wearing a mask even though he had on a face shield). Public approval clearly shows that the right thing was done.

Let’s do it for the public health SOPs as well. When everyone sees that we’re all equally compliant, and more importantly, equally liable, then we may all get into the thinking (and acting) like this is a problem we need to tackle … together. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.