CLEAN HANDS.

Leaders must maintain clean hands. In law, the defense of ‘unclean hands’ means that you cannot hold other people legally responsible for behavior that you yourself have engaged in. The same concept applies in leadership, except the risk is institutional, not legal. The best example of the importance of ‘clean hands’ in leadership (that I have read) comes from the book, Leadership and Self-Deception, by The Arbinger Institute, describing how European doctors in the mid 19th century (prior to the discovery of germ theory which led to the widespread practice of handwashing) inadvertently increased mortality rates in a hospital maternity ward by infecting mothers with germs from their own hands. Similarly, a leaders lack of self-awareness, like germs on the hands of an unwitting physician, has a mortifying impact on trust and effectiveness within organizations. So, effective leaders constantly reflect on how their own behaviors influence the systems in which they serve. #LeadWithCleanHands

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