There is a story of a New York cabbie, who helped a passenger with his heavy bags. After a long and arduous journey, the time comes to pay the fare — $27. As is the practice, the cabbie is hoping for a tip. Instead the passenger counts exactly $27 into the cabbie’s hand and asks, “Is that correct?” The cabbie replies, “Yes Mister, it’s correct, but it ain’t right!”
This tension between doing what’s correct and what’s right will be a leader’s constant companion on her journey. How she responds to this dilemma will form her as a leader and define her leadership.
At its core, is what many authors have called ‘true north’. This refers to a compass you carry, that always points north, no matter where you are. It helps clear the mind, firm the resolve and drive the action. There are several areas where this correct vs right dilemma could come up. Let’s look at three areas.
In principles
A popular liquor ad runs an impressive television ad campaign, ‘Win the right way’. Nothing wrong with that, except that liquor advertising is banned and liquor companies resort to surrogate advertising to get around the rule. The irony of a tag line — an ad that blatantly violates the spirit of winning the right way — seems to be lost on the company. It’s correct, but it ain’t right.
We need to define the principles we plan to lead by — principles that should be our ‘true north’. Whatever the circumstances or challenges, we should always stand by these principles. There will be times when we will be correct by staying true to the letter of a principle; but as leaders, we would be failing if we didn’t do the right thing by staying true to the spirit of the principle.
For example, companies are now talking about gender equality. Shouldn’t that extend to equal pay? Statistics show that men get a higher pay than women for the same roles, simply because they bargain harder. The ‘correct’ thing may be to go with pay that stretches to the bargaining power of candidates. But what is the right thing to do?
To ensure that pay reflects the gender parity principle a company espouses, a hiring manager should tell a lady candidate, “You are going to get more than you asked for because it’s the right pay for the role”.
As with most principles, talking is easy; walking comes hard.
In choices
The now infamous United Airlines (UA) was recently in the news for an uncomfortable incident, when a video of a passenger being forcibly dragged off a flight went viral on social media. UA CEO, Oscar Munoz issued, what Vanity Fair journalist Bess Levin called, a “Sorry, I’m Not Sorry” letter, virtually blaming the passenger.
But after social media upped the ante and the company’s stock started to plummet, dropping as much as 4 per cent and losing almost $800 million in value at one point, then came the real apology — contrite and remorseful.
The CEO had a choice — to do the right thing himself or wait for external factors to push him towards the right thing. He chose the latter — driven again by doing what’s correct instead of what’s right.
Choosing a path
There’s an easy way to tell if our choice is headed down the wrong path. If the temptation is to find refuge in laws, rules, quotes — ‘Clause 32 in the contract’ — then most likely, we’re pushing the correct thing instead of the right thing.
Making the right choice will often have a high cost, sometimes in business results, in personal career growth, or the loss of a deal. But these costs tend to be short-term. In the long-term, both leaders and organisations emerge stronger. This willingness to pay the price, is the real test of how strong our belief in our principle is.
In relationships
Within teams and between organisations, relationships often fray and come apart because we focus on the correct instead of the right. Recently, there was the case of the Stayzilla founder spending almost a month in jail because of a payment dispute with a vendor. All it required was for both sides to ask themselves, “What’s the right thing to do here?”
Instead, with a focus of correctness, each took a stand that resulted in a lose-lose situation. One of the best tools apply here would be ‘Do unto others as I would like to be done unto me’. Applying this often throws up the right over the correct.
Reluctance to say sorry
Another reason why relationships go sour is the reluctance to say sorry. The wrong focus on correct over right is often what prevents people from apologising. Colleagues carry grudges over a perceived slight, an out of turn promotion, a fight over a client account. “I’m correct, he’s wrong, so there’s no need for me to say sorry” is the wall that continues to separate both sides.
But the moment we realise that we don’t say sorry because we’re right or wrong, but because somebody has been hurt, then the wall comes down and right triumphs over correct. The recent India-Australia series was a case in point. With a tough-boy image being ranked higher than doing the right thing, both sides played petty instead of being big-hearted. Sure, they would have lost some of the rabid social media fans but that would really have been about winning the right way.
In all these areas, doing the right thing does not come easy. It takes clarity of conviction and strength of belief. If they are in place, then every time a situation comes up, our self-talk will reflect the conviction. Sure, there will be a tussle between correct and right but if we can keep choosing right, it will become a habit and a defining trait of authentic leadership.