By Linda Fisher Thornton Even if a company has clear values, applying them is not as easy as leaders might think. According to Gallup (2016), just 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work every day, and only 27% strongly agree that they "believe in" their organization's values. In 2022 Gallup reported that "Without strong, lived and embedded values, it is difficult for employees to find meaning in their job."
Category: Purpose and Meaning
Wishing You Hope
By Linda Fisher Thornton Thank you, friends, for reading and sharing this Blog in 2023. I appreciate all the ways you have helped forward the movement toward authentic ethical leadership. Only by bringing out our best as leaders are we able to bring out the best in those we lead. As we head into this holiday season, I wish you hope. Hope is what keeps us going when problems seem impossible to solve, when time is short, and when solutions are distant. If your hopefulness should ever falter, remember these important words.
Thank Someone Who Changed Your Life
By Linda Fisher Thornton There have been several great leaders who helped me grow, and who inspired me to want to lead others. This message is for them:
How to Tell What’s “Right” in a Complex Situation
By Linda Fisher Thornton To understand a complex situation, you first have to WANT to see it as it really is. This means letting go of preconceived ideas of what might be true, and being open to what may unfold as you learn more. After approaching the situation with this open mindset, you need to get more information. As you know from completing puzzles with lots of pieces, a few pieces do not show you the whole picture. As you complete a jigsaw puzzle, you start to see parts of the picture and begin to get a sense of it, but you're definitely still not seeing it as it really is.
Responding (Ethically) To An Overwhelmed Employee
By Linda Fisher Thornton "The issue of the overwhelmed employee looms large" according to Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte. (Are You an Overwhelmed Employee? New Research Says Yes, LinkedIn). Employees are having a hard time managing an overload of information and tasks, and the problem is not getting any better.
Ethical Leaders Care (Part 4)
By Linda Fisher Thornton I wonder what our workplaces would be like if every leader cared. Most leaders care about their own well-being. But what if every leader cared about others? How would things be different? In an organization where every leader cared, wouldn’t we experience improved employee engagement and customer retention? Wouldn’t it be easier to recruit and retain talented and dedicated employees? Wouldn’t we be able to get more done?
Ethical Leaders Care (Part 3)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Demonstrating care is one of the hallmark requirements of good leadership. In addition to caring about what happens in our own careers, we must CARE about people, about their success, and about creating a positive work environment. If leaders don’t seem to care, that numbs the organization’s culture, disabling the natural systems that would prevent and identify ethical risks.
Ethical Leaders Care (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Using an ethics of care changes how we think and act as leaders. It helps us remember that each person is important and that treating each other with care is part of our shared human experience. Caring shows that we know that people are more than task-doers and that leading is more than tactical, more than obligatory, more than just a job
Ethical Leaders Care (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leadership is about much more than making good decisions and abiding by laws and regulations. One of the elements of ethical leadership that may be overlooked when we view ethics using a “legal lens” is supporting and developing the potential of the people we lead.
How Are Authenticity and Self-Actualization Connected?
By Linda Fisher Thornton Authenticity has become a common term used to describe a level of human growth or attainment. I previously wrote about the multiple dimensions of authenticity and how they relate to living an intentional, aware, and ethical life. I became curious about how authenticity relates to measures of human development and Maslow's concept of self-actualization. Scott Barry Kaufman, a humanistic psychologist who tested and built on Maslow's research, includes Authenticity in the list of 10 characteristics of Self-Actualization.
Insights For The Class of 2023
By Linda Fisher Thornton While the world will pull you in many different compelling directions, it is your values that will keep you anchored. Become aware of them. Nurture them…Know what you believe in. Live it. Set an example for others by building a good, ethical life in a chaotic world.
Difference Making Starts Small
By Linda Fisher Thornton Always remember that making a difference starts small, and builds over time. It's not just in the big grandiose projects we take on. It's also the friendship and kindness we show to others day in and day out that changes their lives for the better.
Light Bulb Moments
By Linda Fisher Thornton This week I'm sharing some thoughts about teaching and learning that have been on my mind. It is hard for me to hear about students who are struggling with teachers or professors who try to trick them with impossible tests and quizzes - where everyone does poorly and classgrades have to be rounded up. This kind of behavior in the classroom leads to stress, frustration, lack of confidence, unfairly poor grades and other negative outcomes, when students really do know the material. It can happen, though, when the focus of teaching is in the wrong place.
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.
Leading in Context 