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I know this is a Women's Entrepreneurship column, and not a political column. But the heart of successful entrepreneurship is values-based leadership.
As I wrote in my previous column about values-based leadership (long before Mark Sanford professed his eternal love for his Argentine mistress), a leader can not have two sets of values. Values are the compass that guides all of our actions. Values are either self-serving or selfless.
A leader can not be self-serving/devoid of all obligations in his personal life, and lead a company (or in this case a state) with a separate set of values. A leader can not have split personalities and split agendas. Ultimately, it will all come crashing down like a house of cards, and those that the leader serves - those that have entrusted the leader with their needs - are the ones that will suffer the most.
I am infuriated over how he has treated his wife and his sons. Mark Sanford has four sons. Four sons! Four sons that will one day most likely be husbands and fathers. All that they have known in their lives now comes into question. Everything that they thought to be true & solid is unstable. What do these kids use now as their moral compass?
And what about the citizens of the State of South Carolina? Who is leading them? And the fellow political leaders throughout the country who depended on him - what about the disruption he has caused to his colleagues?
I am stunned at Governor Sanford's audacity to actually think he still maintains the right to lead. Even after he admitted to 'crossing the line" with six other women and telling Associated Press that he has found his soul mate in his Argentina mistress - but still fully expects to reconcile with his wife - he still thinks he deserves the privilege of leadership. He is narcissistic and delusional.
Leadership is a privilege. It's not an entitlement. And values aren't things you can turn on and off with the flip of a switch.
Sanford is an embarrassment to all leaders, and has no right leading. Period.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31664990/ns/politics-more_politics/