By Linda Fisher Thornton Recently, a 7 Lenses reader told me she loved the leadership book but she had one question - "Why did I include Profit in the 7 Lenses?" This is a question that has come up before, so I will address it in today's post.
Category: Complexity
Imperfectly Human
By Linda Fisher Thornton We are all imperfectly human. We make mistakes. We do things that aren't responsible. Yes we ALL do things that aren't responsible at times. If you think you're exempt, let me ask you this.
Finding Meaning Requires Growth
By Linda Fisher Thornton When Nicolae Tanase at ExcellenceReporter.com asked me to submit an entry for his Meaning of Life project, I hesitated. It was a question I had often thought about. But it was a big one, and I wasn't sure I was ready to tackle it publicly. After thinking it over, I decided that the question was related to my work in human development and leadership, and that a clear answer could be valuable to readers.
Helping Young People Become Ethical Leaders
By Linda Fisher Thornton How do we help young people become ethical leaders? This is an important question because our long-term future depends on how well we prepare young people to make positive ethical choices and honor multiple dimensions of ethical responsibility.
Three Questions – Are Our Leaders Ready For The Future?
By Linda Fisher Thornton Our future success is in the hands of our leaders. They will be the ones to notice and remove roadblocks, mentor employees and foresee future opportunities. They will be the ones to tackle the seemingly unsolvable problems of the future. Are they ready?
300th Blog Post: Answering Big Questions About Ethical Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton I have spent the last six years answering the big leadership question "What does it mean to do the right thing?" The support, the unsolicited testimonials and the social shares of this work have been widespread and global. Could it be that the world is ready for a clear answer to this important question? I wrote the book 7 Lenses because I believed that we needed a clear answer to what it meant in a global society. I believed that the answer had to be there, somewhere, if studied the question across disciplines, religions and geographic boundaries. It was a question worth taking on. With a clear understanding of leadership responsibility, and a common language for talking about it, we could get down to business in ways that also improved lives and communities. We could make a powerful positive difference through our leadership.
40 Ways to Build an Ethical Culture (An Ethical To Do List)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Last week I blogged about 40 Ethical Culture Gaps to Avoid. This week, I'm sharing a 'What To Do" list of 40 Ways to Build an Ethical Culture. This list includes many ways to incorporate ethical values into daily organizational leadership. Each one of these 40 Ways to Build an Ethical Culture can improve an organization. Leaders paying attention to all of these factors will reap rewards that include improved employee engagement, better financial performance, increased productivity and job satisfaction, improved competitive position and more. Use this "ethical to do list" to assess your culture. Put a check mark beside the positive ethical actions that you have observed in your organization. Any that you leave unchecked are opportunities for improvement.
12 Trends Shaping the (Responsible, Human) Future of Learning
By Linda Fisher Thornton Much of our success in a rapidly changing world will come from our ability to learn our way through difficult situations that have no clear solutions. Since we can't use a scripted response for unexpected situations, we need to help people learn how to handle complexity and information overload and still make ethical choices. This graphic pulls together 12 important trends in learning that will be important to our success in the future. I believe that the transition from a focus on content to a focus on learner success in the real world is already underway. It transcends settings, being equally important in classrooms and corporate training rooms.
What is Authentic Leadership?
How Do We Define Authenticity in Leadership? Most people would agree that authentic leadership is a good thing. But what does it mean? What qualities do authentic leaders possess that set them apart from other leaders?
5 Ways To Bolster Your Organization’s Ethical Immune System
By Linda Fisher Thornton I was thinking about organizational culture recently, and noticed an interesting parallel. Eating healthy foods, exercising and getting enough sleep all boost our individual immune systems. What actions can we take to boost our ethical immune systems? And how could doing that help us create more ethical organizations? Building a healthy ethical culture where people take steps to protect ethics and reputation takes intentional effort. It requires regular attention, similar to the way we must eat healthy foods and exercise daily to maintain our individual health.
11 Paths To Ethical Leadership Competence
By Linda Fisher Thornton Developing competent ethical leaders is a huge challenge. Why is it so difficult? We live in a globally-connected society, and are expected to be globally-aware. We are dealing with catastrophic change and uncertainty. We fill roles in many different settings including in our organizations, industries and communities. Competence in all of these areas is not simple to achieve.
Why Do People Lead?
By Linda Fisher Thornton Have you ever thought about why people lead? If you could look into the window of their motivations, what would you discover? I have noticed that people want to be in positions of leadership for very different reasons. Some of those…
Imagining The Future Of Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton Learning At 2,400 Tweets Per Hour I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to co-host the live #LeadWithGiants Tweetchat with @DanVForbes on January 19, 2015. The topic was "The Future of Leadership," and the live chat trended…
Prepare Now For The Future of Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton Leading with positive values and demonstrating care are becoming expected ways of doing business. Leading now is not as much about leaders as it is about bringing out the best in those they lead and serve.
5 Elements of a (Proactive) Ethical Workplace
By Linda Fisher Thornton Last week I wrote about how to prepare for leadership future by staying centered in ethical values. Grounding our work in values is critically important but it's not enough. There's much more to being ready for the future of leadership than just staying aligned with positive values. This week I'm sharing a graphic about 5 other variables that need to be in place to build a (positive) ethical culture.
Leading in Context 