The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
People can be bad examples, but valid leaders and even still teach what is true. We don't get to object to legitimate authority just because of the private actions of individual leaders. In the early church even Peter made mistakes of a sort (see Galatians 2:11). But that didn't lessen his authority as the Prince of the Apostles. However, we must not let authority figures normalize bad behavior for us. We must separate legitimate authority and teaching from individual moral example. A case could also be imagined where the example seemed good and the individual upstanding but he was still mistaken about the truth therefore beyond the limits of legitimate authority. Such a one would needs be resisted however nice they seemed.
Jesus wasn't preaching primarily to condemn and criticize the Pharisees. He happily did that to their faces and for the sake of their conversion. He was contrasting the kinds of leaders that the Pharisees were with those that the disciples were meant to be. They were to be integrated and whole, practicing what they preached. They were to speak the truth, and then set the example by their lives, such that they could say, like Saint Paul, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (see First Corinthians 11:1). They were to be recognizable not only by sound doctrine but also by good fruit. In the event that this didn't always happen Christ configured the Church so that individual shortcomings would not preclude the holiness of the people. Individuals might fail and fall short but truth would still be proclaimed and grace made available through the sacraments. And this was ultimately a good design since everyone falls short in some measure. If we were limited to what the best could do then there might be a few people in proximity to living saints who had hope. But we, in the presence of rather ordinary people trying to do God's will, can attain marvelous growth, even without such sanctity all around us.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
As leaders we are meant to first be integrated. Second, we are called to be motivated by compassion. Leadership is often desirable because of vanity, where things are done for the sake of appearances, and where the prestige of the role becomes an end in itself. This is probably especially the case in the Church where the power that comes with leadership is fairly limited. But any kind of a leader, from a parent, to a priest, to a politician, can lord it over those under his charge. But as Jesus said, "It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant" (see Matthew 20:27).
Leaders were called to see themselves not as sources of truth, but as those who pointed to the one source of truth. They were to remember that they were only fathers a limited and derived sense, pointing to the ultimate Fatherhood of God himself. Much less where they to delight in being considered a master, or in desiring such absolute obedience. Rather, they were to point out the path to obedience to the one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus commended to his disciples a philosophy of leadership that was the opposite of that of the Pharisees. The disciples were to seek the last and lowest place, to orient to ministry toward service of others rather than of self. But this was because that any other way of leadership was playing the short game. It would eventually crash and collapse against the reality of the God who is love. It was a brief illusion that would vanish like the morning mist.
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