# What It Means to Be a Conscientious Leader

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387/what-it-means-to-be-a-moral-leader
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387/what-it-means-to-be-a-moral-leader.md
Podcast: [Harvard Business Review](https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387)
Published: 2026-06-07T06:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG5340109832.mp3?updated=1778470396
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG5340109832.mp3?updated=1778470396
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/harvard-business-review-7777387/episodes/what-it-means-to-be-a-moral-leader
Duration seconds: 2616

## Resource

What It Means to Be a Moral Leader 22 Sep 2023 --- Remember when leaders could sidestep taking a stand on sensitive political or societal issues by saying, “The business of business is business”? That aloof neutrality no longer works, says Dov Seidman, founder and chairman of The HOW Institute for Society. “I think the business of business is society,” he says. “It's community, and how we relate to whatever comes our way and how thoughtfully and principled we are.” A leader standing up for what’s right is the new expectation of employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Not to mention relatives at the Thanksgiving dinner table. As AI ramps up and challenges humans’ monopoly on intelligence, purely human skills like moral judgment and empathy become even more crucial for leaders. While machines can be taught to do things right, Seidman says, only people can lead others to do the right things. For this episode of our video series “The New World of Work”, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius sat down with Seidman, who’s also the author of How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything, to discuss: • How to let your principles guide you as a leader • The importance of taking a pause in order to reflect on, reconnect with, rethink, and reimagine your mission • Which human traits and abilities will grow in value as AI grows in raw intelligence This interview part of a series called “The New World of Work,” which explores how top-tier executives see the future and how their companies are trying to set themselves up for success. Each week, Adi will interview a leader on LinkedIn Live — and then share an inside look at those conversations and solicit questions for future discussions in a newsletter just for HBR subscribers. If you’re a subscriber, you can sign up for the newslette…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/harvard-business-review-7777387/episodes/what-it-means-to-be-a-moral-leader/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387/what-it-means-to-be-a-moral-leader.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.