By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical Culture is a System of Systems Don’t assume that an ethical culture will just happen in your workplace. Even if you are a good leader, ethical culture is a delicate thing, requiring intentional positive leadership and daily tending. It requires more than good leadership, more than trust building, and more than good hiring. Why does building an ethical culture require so much more than good leadership? Ethical culture is a system of systems, and just putting in good leadership, trust-building and good hiring doesn’t make it healthy.
Category: Context
Building an Ethical Culture (Part 3)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethics has a compounding effect on culture, and our leadership choices determine whether that effect will be positive or negative. Being diligent about ethics in every decision brings the culture ethics dividends. Being careless about ethics brings ethics penalties. The tricky part about managing ethical culture is that every leader decision and action throughout the organization is changing the equation. The culture equation is changing in real time, every day.
Building an Ethical Culture (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton One of my favorite concepts for understanding how social media is changing the visibility of organizational culture is Trendwatching.com’s report Glass Box Brands. As Trendwatching.com eloquently explains, “In an age of radical transparency, your internal culture is your brand.” The key point I take away from this important report is that we can no longer assume that our culture is private. In fact, it’s completely public and it defines our brand.
Building an Ethical Culture (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton After I published “Prevention or Cure: Your Choice” about reducing ethical risk and creating a positive culture a reader asked for more information about the business case for prevention. Here are some compelling reasons why the prevention approach is a better business decision than waiting for ethical problems and applying a “cure” after the organization is already in trouble.
Teach Every Child These 5 Things
By Linda Fisher Thornton Our successful shared future depends on how we raise children now, as they will become our future leaders. There is no way to know which children will be the ones to solve the problems our current leaders are unwilling and/or unable to solve in the future. How we teach and inspire them now will impact their ability to interact with others and lead others in ethical ways.
The Peace Imperative
By Linda Fisher Thornton "Global Peace Index 2022 results show that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.03%. Although slight, this is the eleventh deterioration in peacefulness in the last fourteen years" - Vision of Humanity
10 Years of Top Posts: Leading in Context Blog
By Linda Fisher Thornton This week I’m sharing The Last 10 Years of Top Posts on the Leading in Context Blog. It’s a time capsule of the issues you thought were most important over the last 10 years. For each year, I have selected a theme that reflects the topics and focus of the reader's most read posts.
Leadership Questions For The New Year
By Linda Fisher Thornton What will 2023 be like? We've been through so much over the past few years. Will things be better? Whatever happens, the start of a new year is a great time to take stock of our leadership strengths and areas for improvement. Regardless of the leadership challenges we may face this year, there are important things we should be doing to make it easier for others to succeed, and our teams are counting on us to do them so that they can do their best work.
700th Leading in Context Blog Post: What If?
By Linda Fisher Thornton In my 600th post, I wrote about my top 10 Leadership Lessons Learned. In this 700th post, I want to take a moment to dream and imagine what life could be like if all leaders took the time to learn ethical thinking, decision making and leadership, and applied them every day.
Top 10 Posts of 2022: Leading in Context Blog
By Linda Fisher Thornton Of the 52 weekly posts published on the Leading in Context Blog in 2022, these 10 were the most popular. See if you notice a theme that connects these new topics that readers accessed most frequently:
Will You Give the 12 Gifts of Leadership This Year?
By Linda Fisher Thornton How do we lead when we want to bring out the best in people? These 12 Gifts of Leadership are on the wish lists of employees around the world. They aren't expensive. They don't require dealing with the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, and one size fits all. Sure, these gifts are harder to give than a fruitcake, but they will be life-changing for those you lead.
A Thankful Heart
By Linda Fisher Thornton Cicero’s quote reminds us that if we want to act on the important virtues that create a just society, we must first see the world with a thankful heart.
Focus on Teaching Students How to Think (Not What To Think)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Have you noticed that the current fray about what to teach about difficult subjects has been focused on teaching "one way or the other?" "Are you for it or against it? and "Which side are you on?" This approach completely misses the point that the purpose of education is not to teach students what to think. It's to teach students how to think, and how to navigate differences respectfully.
Non-Violence and the Greater Good (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Nonviolence provides a higher order mindset that helps us provide lasting solutions to global problems. In the process of human development, we reach a point when we become increasingly concerned about our impact on others and society. We begin to consider our impact more broadly and use a long-term perspective when we approach problems. We outgrow the notion that expedient violence will solve our problems.
Non-Violence and the Greater Good (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton When we lead for the greater good, we leave a positive legacy for future generations. At this highest level of ethical leadership, we ensure quality of life and opportunities for others we may never meet, well into the future. We intentionally create a better world.
Leading in Context 