The Role Of Sacrifice In Leadership: Choice And Consequence

Forbes

10-07-2025

Sonal Jain is the Global CHRO of EPL LTD.
When you think of the word "sacrifice," names like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Bhagat Singh and Mother Teresa likely come to mind. Great leaders who sacrificed their lives for the greater good of humanity.
But is this the only sacrifice that exists in the world? Are all sacrifices for good? Who decides and who validates that this is a sacrifice? What is the genesis of sacrifice? The dictionary says: giving up something that is important or valuable to you in order to get or do something that seems more important; something that you give up in this way.
Does sacrifice play a role in leadership, and to what extent?
People sacrifice for a variety of reasons, like religious beliefs, personal relationships, commitment to a greater cause or personal growth and transformation. In this article, I explore what kind of sacrifices leaders make in the corporate world and what the probable consequences are to themselves and the ecosystem.
Sacrifice For A Greater Good
Often, a leader is driven by purpose so much so that they forget about their needs and anchor all their actions towards solving an unmet need of the larger ecosystem. They sacrifice their material desires, constantly guided by their inner force and are detached from the immediate outcomes.
The consequence is mostly in the long term. If they have the support of the universe, combined with their hard work, grit and resilience, they can make transformational shifts in the ecosystem and the world becomes a better place. In this journey, they have to give up their comfort and go through many challenges. The joy for such leaders is to make others happy.
Sacrifice For Personal Needs
Some leaders may put their personal needs of either fame, money or career success ahead of everyone else. They might sacrifice loyalty, commitment and responsibility in their pursuit. These leaders are driven by personal anchors—their own needs—and are able to justify black, white and grey.
Interestingly, they might not hurt another human being as they tend to look at everything as an object with detachment. This category of leaders' motive might not be bad, except that there is a huge deficit in their personal needs, which makes them sacrifice others around them.
Sacrifice For Greed
According to my experience, these individuals put themselves at the center of everything. While broadly it might appear they have everything, they are unfulfilled at the core. They have something broken internally, much more than what is visible from the outside. For them, nothing else matters. Their decisions, actions and behaviors are derived from what is in it for them.
In this process, hurting others, consuming what is not theirs and constantly spoiling the environment becomes their second nature. However, they might not be aware of this. They might be justifying their actions with a victim mindset and how everyone else has much more—and until they have it, nothing is equal.
While in the short term, these actions might lead to immediate gains, in the long term, people around them will start to notice. While people around these leaders may not be in a position to influence, they will subtly move away at an appropriate opportunity.
Assess Your Leadership
In all three kinds of sacrifices in leaders, there will be outcomes, results and forward steps, but how they have been taken will determine the longevity, quality and quantity. These needs arise from our birth, parents, schooling, society, values, beliefs and loved ones since our childhood. All of these shape who we are.
Let's look at how you can assess what kind of leader you are.
1. Awareness: Identifying your purpose is easier said than done. Then, understand why you do certain things the way you do them. What are you willing to let go of to achieve your purpose? Who benefits from the actions, and what is the depth of impact?
2. Understand Emotions: Human beings are energy, which is driven by an integration of complex emotions. Leaders must understand what kind of emotions they are experiencing—altruism, satisfaction, esteem, fulfilment or, at the other extreme, anger, resentment, depression, guilt, exhaustion.
3. Communicate With Yourself: When you decide to sacrifice for others, communicate with yourself clearly. An individual is the best mirror for themselves. Don't hide behind justification. Listen to your inner voice and reflect calmly and patiently. Even if you hear whispers, let them come in. Listen to your intuition and gut to make sense of your decisions.
4. Use The Ecosystem: Understand through the lens of others around you and how they observe your actions. Reach out to people who would say all good things and who might do the opposite. Listen to their feedback unfiltered, and give them a safe space so that they can open the window for you. Accepting it or not is your choice.
5. Act Wisely: Human beings are made of complex forms. Good or bad has been a part of our evolution. Make wise decisions in full awareness of the impact on yourself, family, friends, society and the ecosystem. Leaders might not be able to change themselves immediately, but having an inner voice will slow this process in case you are in conflict.
Understanding sacrifices for a leader is critical and builds a quotient across emotions, resilience and surging forward. All of the above can help you understand if you're living from a space of surviving or thriving. It is crucial to understand the consequences and then make a holistic decision regarding your actions as a leader.
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