Understanding meaning of pragmatic leadership

WE are often advised by our leaders, both in government and business communities, to be pragmatic in addressing difficult and controversial problems. There are also arguments that we need to be pragmatic but principled. I suspect the word "pragmatic" and "practical" may have been used interchangeably, but I would like to draw a distinction between the two, as I will illustrate below.

I first learned of the term "pragmatism" as a leadership trait some years ago from the responses that our founding Prime Minis…