Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Bishop Claude Berkley say leadership in today’s society requires more than intelligence and authority—it demands deep empathy, strong moral grounding, and the resilience to endure public pressure.
Both men spoke during a powerful panel discussion hosted by Bishop’s High School to celebrate its 100th anniversary, where they shared personal reflections on how their childhoods, school experiences, and faith shaped their leadership styles.
CJ Archie, Trinidad and Tobago’s youngest appointed Chief Justice, said public life carries immense—and often misunderstood—pressure.
“You cannot hold any position of authority or leadership for any significant time without coming under attack. That is the nature of life,” he said.
“If I have a decision to make, my first question is, does what I’m about to do align with the core principles by which I have chosen to live?”
He said knowing he acts with integrity helps him sleep at night, even when public criticism becomes deeply personal.
“I think for me, my resilience comes precisely from the fact that we were so supported. Nobody told us that there were limits, you know. Nobody told us,” he said.
But he acknowledged that the emotional toll of leadership reaches far beyond the individual.
“I will tell you, the pressure is not so much on you, you know. It’s on your family and the people who are close to you and the people who love you and the people who are concerned about you,” the CJ observed.
“Sometimes that itself is in the equation, because… I mean, it’s okay for me, I could take the pain. But do I want to put my loved ones through that pain?”
Bishop Berkley spoke about how spiritual responsibility shapes his leadership, and how growing up in Tobago prepared him for a life of service.
“Well, remember, we acquired this—the cloth. So there was a life going on before the cloth, yes, and too much, too much life,” he said.
He recalled how school and community life were deeply structured, and that foundation taught him self-discipline.
“The way the school was organised put some things in place that demanded a certain standard of you,” he said.
Berkley said dealing with conflict is inevitable in leadership, but warned that modern society’s anger now often replaces efforts at resolution.
“Conflict is basic to life… What we would like to encourage is that we’ve got to find a way to deal with anger,” he said.
Both men argued that values such as accountability, empathy, and discipline are missing in today’s society—and must be taught again, starting with the family and the school system.
CJ Archie said true justice must be rooted in compassion, restoration, and moral codes—many of which, he believes, are found in scripture. He said religion and law remain inextricably linked.
Both men agreed that their work shares a common foundation.
“Where do we get our sense of justice from? It really is, you know, even without any sense of any particular religion or so. It’s those codes which in our construct we find in the Bible … Sometimes when you read the stories, you may be tempted to think that our notion of justice, at least in modern times, is less harsh, but justice involves elements of compensation. It involves elements of compassion. It involves elements of restoration. And we can find all of those things in the Bible,” CJ Archie said.