By Linda Fisher Thornton I had the privilege of hearing award-winning author Blanche Wiesen Cook speak at The University of Richmond last night. Her topic was "Toward an Inclusive Democracy: Eleanor Roosevelt's Legacy." During the inspiring talk, she noted that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Eleanor Roosevelt championed, is turning 70 this month.
Category: Complexity
Ethical Thinking is Intentional, Thoughtful and Applied
By Linda Fisher Thornton
One of the things we know about ethical decision-making is that we need to take the time to do it. But if we fill up every minute of the day with meetings, deadlines, emails and projects, when will we have time to think about the impact of our choices?
Ethical Thinking Requires Dialogue
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ethical leadership requires us to understand the context and embrace the natural complexity of issues. One of the pieces that we can't be successful without is learning from the widely varying perspectives of others.
MindTools Expert Interview Podcast With Linda Fisher Thornton
By Linda Fisher Thornton
I recently did an interview with Rachel Salaman for the MindTools Expert Interview Podcast. We had a lively conversation about ethical leadership and the concepts from my book 7 Lenses: Learning the Principles and Practices of Ethical Leadership.
Click on the graphic below to read the MindTools blog post featuring highlights from that interview and an excerpt of the podcast.
The Mind Must Move
By Linda Fisher Thornton
We know that to stay healthy, we have to move. Many of us wear wrist bands that track the number of steps we take daily to make sure we "stay in the healthy zone." I have been increasing my steps each year, and have enjoyed more energy and a sense of improved well-being.
While we can easily track our physical steps, our mental steps are more elusive.
Grey Areas: Our Choices Define Us (Part 3)
By Linda Fisher Thornton
There will always be grey areas that aren't covered by the ethics code. In grey areas, leaders "paint the boundary" of ethical choices others will make by how they navigate the ethical complexity when the boundaries are not clear.
Part 3 of this series Grey Areas: Our Choices Define Us includes cases to get you talking about interpersonal grey areas, and related articles for learning.
Grey Areas: Our Choices Define Us (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton
This post is an updated version of a reader favorite.
There Will Always Be Grey Areas
There will always be ethical grey areas. We see plenty of information about lying, cheating, stealing and other obvious ethical violations. It is more difficult to know what to do when we encounter behaviors that fall into ethical grey areas, particularly in term of relationships with other people. Grey areas are difficult for anyone to handle but leaders bear the additional weight of needing to set the tone for the organization. Each decision impacts the ethics of the organization.
The Future of Education: Ethical Literacy For Handling Global Complexity
By Linda Fisher Thornton
We are not preparing students for success in the world where they will have to live and work. Some of the ways we currently think about "teaching" need to be scrapped and replaced.
It will be increasingly important that teachers and other learning guides dig into complexity in order to help prepare students who need to handle increasing complexity in their lives and work. A focus on "knowing" must be replaced with a focus on "how to think, problem solve and successfully navigate global complexity using ethical values."
What is Ethics?
By Linda Fisher Thornton
We are globally connected and becoming more aware of the complexity of our connections. We need a robust understanding of ethics - what it means, what it requires of us, and what we need to know and do to be ethical.
As we learn about ethics, we need to understand it in a multidimensional way. One-dimensional definitions lead us down a single path and prevent us from seeing our broad responsibilities as citizens and leaders. Here is a quick tour of ways to think about ethics.
Ethical Leadership: Complexity, Context and Adaptation
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ethical leadership requires growth, a willingness to acknowledge complexity and an understanding of the broader context in which we lead. Use these resources to improve your ethical awareness, learn about how the leadership context is evolving and check for learning blind spots.
What Happens When You Ignore Complexity?
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ignoring complexity reduces the number of variables considered in a decision. That may seem convenient (see last week's post) but it also removes the nuanced thinking that is necessary for ethical decision making. With all the information available in a socially connected world, it is easy to fall victim to the quick oversimplified understanding of issues. This "quick glance" way of gathering information doesn't reveal the breadth and depth of what's really going on.
Leaders: What’s Missing in Convenient Actions? – Values
By Linda Fisher Thornton
With all the inappropriate behavior in the news, I thought it would be a good time to explore the difference between actions that are CONVENIENT and those that are APPROPRIATE. Instead of saying "I'll know appropriate when I see it" it seems necessary to break it down and articulate the difference clearly. So here goes...
Leaders: Can You Control Ethics?
By Linda Fisher Thornton The question for today is "Can we control ethics?" Leaders have tried to control ethics with compliance-based systems (based on rules and penalties) but that does not tend to inspire people to ethical action. Leaders have tried to control ethics by running a tight ship, closely managing workers, but that does not bring out the best in people and may lead to workers not caring about protecting the company's reputation.
Trends In Ethical PR
By Linda Fisher Thornton It is a difficult time to be in PR and Communications. The stakes are high and it's easy to miss the mark. I spoke at the Virginia Professional Communicators Conference on Saturday, as the group celebrated its…
29 Flawed Assumptions About Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton
I was pruning shrubs this week and it occurred to me that we have many mistaken assumptions about leadership that can lead us to make bad choices. Those flawed assumptions are like the deadwood we prune away from our plants in the spring.
...If we don't prune regularly, the deadwood affects our growth and success.
Leading in Context 