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: Ethical Leadership Development
Bridging Cultural Differences
By Linda Fisher Thornton Openness to learning about other cultures has become a necessary component of leadership. One way to help people respect cultural differences is to build what UNESCO calls “intercultural competence.” To accomplish this, we need an open mind, and a willingness to learn from others who do not think or live as we do.
11 Paths to Mastering Ethical Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton Developing competent ethical leaders can be 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 many different roles in our organizations, industries and communities. Each role we play and each decision we face has different ethical implications. Ethical competence is definitely not something that “just happens.”
Ethical Leaders: 10 Behaviors to Avoid
By Linda Fisher Thornton In the lifelong quest to become our best selves, we need to stretch and grow and learn from our mistakes. Being a flexible and willing learner, we will more easily stay competent as the world changes. Here are 10 things to avoid if we are to accomplish the elusive goal of becoming our best selves:
5 Compelling Reasons Leader Development is a Strategic Priority
By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leadership learning is an issue that is gaining attention. Expectations of “good leadership” are increasing and leaders and organizations are scrambling to keep up. While sometimes people disagree about implementation, there is a strong consensus among scholars and research organizations that today’s leadership requires broad, high level, inclusive thinking.
What Role Does Exclusion Play in Hate and Violence? (Part 3)
By Linda Fisher Thornton One of the thinking traps that people fall into is putting people into categories. This may result in assigning a derogatory label to the category, and making blanket statements about how "all people" from that category are a certain way.
Ethical Leadership Development: Preparing Leaders For the Future
By Linda Fisher Thornton I spoke with Human Resource leaders attending a Richmond SHRM Strategic Leadership Conference about The Future of Ethics and Business Leadership. The lens I used to frame the discussion was leadership development – how we can prepare leaders to lead ethically in a highly complex, connected future. Here are some highlights from my presentation – a few of the important success principles for developing “Ethical Leader Future.
Ethical Leadership Development: Global Awareness
By Linda Fisher Thornton Laws serve as he minimum standards for society, but responsible leadership requires that we go well beyond those minimum standards. This post explores resources that help us understand (1) what it means to be a globally responsible leader and (2) what kinds of learning opportunities help leaders develop a global sense of responsibility.
Ethical Leadership Development: Global Principles
By Linda Fisher Thornton Beyond complying with laws and regulations, what should C-Suite leaders be doing about ethical leadership and responsible business practices? CEOs, CLOs, CHROs and other C-Suite leaders should be working together to ensure that every leader is doing business responsibly and ethically. But what does “doing business responsibly and ethically” look like in today’s global economy? In our interconnected working world, where each economy affects all others around the world, ethical business practices need to be thought about more broadly than ever before.
Ethical Leadership Development: 15 Important Elements
By Linda Fisher Thornton Since moral growth is a lifelong pursuit, moral education needs to start early, and it needs to continue throughout our professional careers. This requires quite a bit more effort than just doing an "annual ethics training." Since ethical leadership itself is multidimensional and nuanced, any ethical leadership development for leaders must be multifaceted and nuanced.
Ethical Leadership Development: High Level View
By Linda Fisher Thornton What is Ethical Leadership Development? Ethical leadership development is the ongoing process of guiding leaders to become ethical people and ethical leaders. It is not the same thing as compliance training or following legal requirements, although those are also important. This is the human development that happens over time to bring leaders to the point of being able to handle what the world throws at them using ethical thinking and action. The way we develop leaders impacts their growth and readiness to make successful and ethical choices when faced with challenging situations.
14 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Ethical Learning
By Linda Fisher Thornton When we reach a certain level of accomplishment as leaders, it is easy to think we can slide into neutral. Here are 14 compelling reasons why we can never afford to cut back on investing in our own leadership development and competence:
10 Quotes to Inspire Leaders in 2024 (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton This series includes 10 quotes (linked to blog posts with leadership guidance) to inspire you and help you improve your leader development as we head into the new year. Part 1 includes the first 5.
Top Post Series of 2023: Leading in Context Blog
By Linda Fisher Thornton The Top Post Series for last year on the Leading in Context Blog reflected how to navigate the nuances of ethical culture building. It featured specific areas of focus and strategies for building an ethical culture in your organization.
Top 10 Posts of 2023: Leading in Context Blog
By Linda Fisher Thornton Of the 52 weekly posts published on the Leading in Context Blog in 2023, these 10 were the most popular. See if you notice a theme that connects these new topics that readers accessed most frequently:
Leading in Context 