By Linda Fisher Thornton I was noticing how many drivers seem to be in a hurry, and I realized that some people are rushing so quickly that they don't stop to consider their impact on others (on the road or elsewhere). They just want to get wherever they're going as quickly as possible. Some (who aspire to be) leaders act this way, too. While their purpose should be to enable the success of those they lead, they stop their circle of purpose at themselves and don't let concern for anyone else's well-being slow them down. I wonder what values are at the center of that kind of leadership? Speed? Money? Power? Efficiency?
Category: Ethical Leader
Top 10 Posts 2016: Leading in Context Blog
By Linda Fisher Thornton Of the 52 posts published on the Leading in Context Blog in 2016, these 10 were the most popular. See if you notice a theme that connects these topics that readers accessed most frequently:
20 Quotes To Inspire Leaders in the New Year (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Are your leaders prepared for the year ahead? Each day will bring new challenges. To succeed within ethical boundaries, they'll need a clear picture of "good leadership." This series includes 20 quotes (linked to posts with leadership guidance) to inspire you and help you improve your leader development. Part 1 included the first 10. Here are 10 more:
A Message of Hope
By Linda Fisher Thornton Thank you, friends, for reading and sharing this Blog in 2016. 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:
Ethical Leadership is a “Fear-Free” Zone
By Linda Fisher Thornton Fear is insidious. It changes how we see the world and how we treat others. Here are 5 important reasons why fear has no place in our workplaces, our families or our communities:
20 Quotes To Inspire Leaders in the New Year (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton In the New Year, we will deal with leadership challenges we cannot predict in advance. To be ready, we need to set our leadership and learning on the path to success. This series includes 20 quotes (linked to posts with leadership guidance) that will help you leverage your leadership planning. Here are the first 10:
A Message of Gratitude
By Linda Fisher Thornton There have been several great leaders who helped me find my best self, and who inspired me to want to lead others. This message is for them: "Thank you for being a great leader. You may never know just how deeply your kindness and support have impacted my life.
How Do You Recognize a Trustworthy Leader?
By Linda Fisher Thornton I'm hearing people talking about trustworthy leadership everywhere I go. We all crave it. We seek it out because trustworthy leadership allows us to be at our best so that we can make a meaningful contribution. To identify a trustworthy leader, look for all of these tell-tale signs:
Is Spam An Ethical Red Flag?
By Linda Fisher Thornton Consumers expect companies to respect boundaries. That allows them to live happy and meaningful lives without intrusion from companies that want them to "buy right now."
Never Underestimate The Power of Trust
By Linda Fisher Thornton Trust is powerful. It is being recognized as a pivot point in business and a powerful catalyst for financial success. This updated Harvard Business review article connects trust with ROI and risk management:
What Does it Mean to “Do the Right Thing?”
By Linda Fisher Thornton The "Keep it Simple" approach is good for many situations, but keeping it simple will set you up for failure in ethics. Using an oversimplified approach to solving a complex ethical problem just means you leave out variables you should be considering.
Prevention or Cure? Your Choice
By Linda Fisher Thornton Senior leadership teams and boards have a choice. In their ethics strategy, they can focus on prevention or cure. The cure approach is reactive and messy. It involves waiting for something bad to happen, then scrambling to do damage control. Then you have to build an ethical support system (perhaps at the insistence of a regulatory body) to prevent it from happening again. The prevention approach is proactive and positive, and it helps prevent those messy problems. It involves building the ethical support system up front, while things are going well.
Great Leaders Are Other-Focused
By Linda Fisher Thornton There are many important roles leaders play. They are supporters, developers, guides, team builders, and imaginers. They are culture caretakers, roadblock removers and inspirers.
Leaders Are Culture Caretakers: 10 Actions For Success
By Linda Fisher Thornton There are many ways to understand culture, and some of the definitions are very complicated. My favorite way to think about culture is as an infrastructure or scaffolding that supports the behaviors we want. Culture drives what people do, and is the setting and framework for great work.
What Does it Mean to Win?
By Linda Fisher Thornton What it means to "win" in business has changed. Driving this change is a greater awareness of the impact we have on each other.
Leading in Context 