By Linda Fisher Thornton
The Manifesto
This week, I want to continue to explore the mindset behind The Leading in Context® Manifesto. Here is an important quote from it about the positive impact of ethical leadership:
“Imagine the potential. What could we accomplish if we proactively developed ethical leaders and an ethical culture? Unleash the performance potential of our people? Transform our organizations? Improve lives and communities? Change the world?”
By Linda Fisher Thornton
When we think about ethical leadership as a performance system, we get a higher level view of what it takes to develop ethical leaders. This graphic shows what an integrated ethical leadership performance management system might look like.
Discouraging Unethical Leadership
The senior leaders in an organization need to work together to create an organization where ethical leadership is rewarded and unethical leadership is quickly corrected.
To build an ethical organization over time, Chief Learning Officers can work with leaders throughout the organization to build ethical competence in areas that support effective communication and leadership.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
The post “Leader Competence: Will It Be A Multiplier or Divider?” generated some great discussion on social media. Here’s a quote from the post: “Leader competence is either going to be a multiplier or a divider. When you have it, you multiply performance and trust, with exponential results. Without it, you divide your possible results by the incompetence factor.”
After reading the post, one reader requested that I write more on the topic. This week I’m digging deeper into the multiplying and dividing effects of leader (in)competence, looking at how a leader’s ethical competence impacts trust, people, bottom line results and organizational adaptability:
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Any time you draw a line that excludes, you’re leaving ethical territory. That’s a bold statement, but when someone draws a dividing line that intentionally excludes people or groups, it can lead to an “us versus them” mentality. And from there, it’s a short slippery slope to this and more…
By Linda Fisher Thornton
This series includes 22 quotes (linked to posts with leadership guidance) to inspire you and help you improve your leader development as we head into the new year. Part 1 included the first 11. Here are 11 more:
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Are your leaders prepared for the year ahead? Each day will bring new challenges, and to succeed within ethical boundaries, we’ll all need a clear picture of “good leadership.”
This series is an annual tradition and this year’s posts include 22 quotes (each linked to a post with leadership guidance) to inspire you to grow your leadership skills to be ready for whatever 2022 may bring. Part 1 includes the first 11.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Employers using stretch goals to motivate employees to higher levels of performance need to take note of the ethical risk. If the push for higher performance doesn’t come with an emphasis on ethical behavior, it may be encouraging cheating.
LeadinginContext.com
Resources By Topic
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ethical leadership failures can be caused by different types of problems that may compound. Some of these problems are individual and others may be embedded in the organizational culture.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ethical leadership development is the ongoing process of guiding leaders to become ethical people and ethical leaders. It is not the same thing as compliance training or legal requirements, although those are also important. This is the human development that happens over time that brings leaders to the point of being able to handle what the world throws at them using ethical thinking and action.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ethical leaders create fear-free work environments, which are foundational in building and maintaining ethical culture and protecting reputation and ethical brand value. This week let’s build on research previously shared in a popular post, and look at additional insights about the negative impact of fear-inducing leadership on individuals and organizations.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
This post is the first in a three-part series about how to repair organizational trust. It was inspired by conversations with other members of the Trust Across America Trust Alliance and my work as part of the Trust Alliance TAP team.
Some people think about ethics as a theoretical concept that lives in procedures and regulations, but they’re missing the point. Ethics is not just an esoteric concept. It’s an actionable responsibility.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
I tell my students that if you go through life just reaching for the minimum standard, you end up with a minimum standard life. The good things in life, including success and happiness are more likely to happen when we reach higher than the baseline that is expected of us.
Leading in Context 