WEDNESDAY IN COUNCIL WAS HARD FOR ROB FORD

Rob Ford doesn’t get it and he doesn’t want to hear it. He needs help. I have viewed video of Rob Ford in today’s Toronto City Council meeting. Thirty of his fellow council members stood to tell him that he should take a leave of absence and seek help. His responses indicate that he has no idea about authentic leadership. Until now he has attempted to conduct himself as a Mayor with a mission while at work, yet to live differently outside of work. While he acknowledges that he made mistakes, he moves quickly from that issue by asserting that he knows that he has done a great job of running the city, and he has saved taxpayers’ money. His accomplishments should outweigh his personal mistakes in his view.

Leaders are in positions of social power and principled leaders use their social power in decisions they make, in actions they take and in the ways they influence others. They understand that integrity stimulates leader trustworthiness. At this moment, Rob Ford is a celebrity spectacle who cannot engender others to accept his vision as a leader. His values have impacted his decisions as a leader, and his decisions are impacting other people, negatively. He’s not getting it, and his brother, a fellow council member is his chief enabler for conduct unbecoming because he doesn’t encourage him to seek help.

He will lose all his support and he will be turfed and never regain his place in power unless he exhibits immediate humility, accepts that his conduct has been unacceptable and seeks help for any and every compulsion, craving or addiction that clouds his judgement, spoils his character and generates unsuitable conduct.