Are you a leader who aspires to set an example of ethical leadership in your organization? If so, you are headed in the right direction.
An organization’s leadership is responsible for influencing others to perform an action, complete a task, or behave in a specific manner. Leaders must be people-oriented, decisive, and bold, with a well-developed ability to inspire and motivate. They must also be able to do what is sometimes inconvenient, unpopular, or perhaps even temporarily unprofitable. Leaders must do all of the above, and those leaders who are viewed as ethical and honest will have a far greater chance of gaining and keeping the loyalty of employees and others. To be viewed as otherwise is indeed a slippery slope.
The following steps may be useful in establishing an ethical-leadership model:
- Set high ethical standards and meet (or exceed) them. Standards should be established and promulgated for both professional and personal conduct. Those standards should be maintained and monitored, with the leadership team always setting the proper example. Drive a culture of ethical behavior by constant reinforcement and demonstration, and clearly establish that partial or non-compliance from anyone is unacceptable.
- Openly share information. Transparency should be more than a promise or a slogan. Make sure your employees understand that you share information with them because you trust them, and thus you expect them to make the right decisions because of their being well-informed.
- Be fair in all personnel decisions. Merit and fairness should always factor disproportionately in decisions affecting employees. Never assume that employees can’t detect favoritism or prejudice; they can. Always assume that examples of unfairness will do great damage to the fabric of your organization; it will. Know that fairness will help gain and maintain trust; it does.
- Keep your word. This should be common sense, right? Often, however, it’s uncommon practice. Your word is truly your bond. The more your employees can count on you to do what you say, the stronger the bond. They can count on you, you can count on them–there is a direct correlation.
- Treat everyone with respect. An ethical leader leads in a manner that respects the rights and dignity of others, both within and outside the organization. It is critical that this behavioral characteristic starts at the top; it is not a bottom-up process.
The above steps can help establish in everyone’s mind the importance of ethics. It is the leader’s responsibility to build the trust, set the example, and drive a culture of high ethical standards in an organization.
What a great reminder that we all should be fair and ethical in our actions. Above all, we are all leaders in some way a need to remember we have a responsibility to accordingly. I am a big believer in transparency in the workplace. A truly ethical company (or individual for that matter) has no reason to hide anything.
Couldn’t agree more, Ali.
Thanks for this Gerald. Since I am a teacher…I see this through an educator’s perspective. Teachers are inherently leaders because they are in charge of their students’ learning. They are also leaders because they “drive a culture of ethical behavior” in their classroom and school. I can remember the teachers that I had growing up and their behavior (how they treated other people with respect) made an impact on me. I appreciate the reminder to lead by example.
Thanks goodness for great teachers! Their influence can be lifelong.
What are your thoughts on politicians? Obviously one would assume that they above all should be ethical and transparent but is there a case where some lack of transparency or ethics is allowable? Perhaps with respect to national security? I’m not suggesting this to be the case but wonder your thoughts on it.
My thoughts on politicians are generally consistent with the polling data that shows Americans fast losing faith in elected officials. Rogues and rascals have always populated the political class, but now it seems there are few virtuous, honest, courageous political leaders who set the right example and hold others accountable. Maybe it’s the sort of people who choose to run for office nowadays, or maybe it’s the corrupting nature of the system once they’re in it. Term limits might help. Start with say, fifteen minutes 🙂
15 minute term limits would be great!
The problem is that we don’t realize how unethical many politicians are until it’s too late and they’re already in office. I still think that campaign finance reform of some kind would help, as current rules allow the unethical to simply earn more money (and more airtime, and more votes), though actually finding the right solution won’t be easy.
Great comments to all. I agree with both the term limits and campaign finance reform – these super pacs were ridiculous with the amount of money raised during an extremely trying ecomonic time. However, more to the point of Gerald’s blog, ethical leadership is so necessary and fulfilling in a company (or government) setting. A strong ethical leader inspires others to step up and do the same.
I enjoyed reading the comments almost as much as the post! These are truly words to live by. Not just in business, but in life. They can all be applied to make us better people.