Life would be much simpler if the right thing was always obvious. Simpler still if doing the right thing carried no cost. Unfortunately, most meaningful decisions do not work that way.

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The older I get, the less interested I become in questions of right and wrong, and the more interested I become in questions of consequence.

Not because morality matters less.

Because morality becomes harder.

When I left a barbecue chicken on the hook of a supermarket trolley and returned to pay for it, the moral equation was simple. Nobody would have known. Nobody would have stopped me. The cost of doing the right thing was inconvenience.

The larger the responsibility, the larger the consequences.

A parent deciding whether to discipline a child. A manager deciding whether to terminate an employee. A chief executive officer deciding whether to close a factory. A prime minister deciding whether to commit troops, sign a treaty, impose sanctions or maintain an alliance.

These are not decisions made in a vacuum. They affect lives. Sometimes lots of them.

This is where morality becomes uncomfortable, because leadership rarely presents us with a choice between good and evil. More often it presents us with a choice between competing harms:

One option hurts Group A.

Another hurts Group B.

A third hurts everyone a little.

A fourth protects people today but creates problems tomorrow.

Welcome to leadership.

The challenge is not identifying the perfect outcome. The challenge is accepting that one may not exist.

This is why I sometimes struggle with modern political discourse.

Too often we demand certainty from leaders while simultaneously condemning them for the consequences of the choices they make.

We want decisive action and perfect outcomes. We want low taxes and better services. Strong borders and open economies. National security and unlimited freedoms. Climate action and no disruption.

Growth without sacrifice.

The problem........

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