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.