By Linda Fisher Thornton When leaders trust and are trustworthy, this brings out their best and fuels a virtuous cycle that brings out the best in others and releases the potential of the organization for great performance. Ethical Leaders Are Trustworthy and They Choose to Trust Others When we choose to trust, we access a higher level of capacity in ourselves and our organizations. When we are consistently trustworthy, people know they can count on us to support their success. How Does Trust Drive Results? Once thought by business leaders to be "soft," trust is now proven to be a "results-changer." Here is a sampling of the many ways trust transforms organizations:
Category: Ethical Organization
Trends In Ethical PR
By Linda Fisher Thornton It is a difficult time to be in PR and Communications. The stakes are high and it's easy to miss the mark. I spoke at the Virginia Professional Communicators Conference on Saturday, as the group celebrated its…
29 Flawed Assumptions About Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton I was pruning shrubs this week and it occurred to me that we have many mistaken assumptions about leadership that can lead us to make bad choices. Those flawed assumptions are like the deadwood we prune away from our plants in the spring. ...If we don't prune regularly, the deadwood affects our growth and success.
22 Resources For Developing Ethical Thinking
By Linda Fisher Thornton This week I'm sharing a collection of hand-picked resources that will help you upgrade your thinking. With all of the ethical messes in the news recently, this seems to be the right time to help you focus on PREVENTION as applied to thinking. It's our thinking, after all, that determines what we decide to do under pressure.
TAP Into Trust With These 12 Principles
By Linda Fisher Thornton Every organization needs to pay attention to trust. It improves metrics including productivity, employee satisfaction and ethical brand value. It makes organizations better places to work where people want to invest time and plan careers.
Seeing The Nuances Of Ethical Leadership (A Developmental Model)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Leadership is not a position or a task. It is a complex array of roles, relationships and processes, and yet we use one term, "leadership," to talk about it. And in using that term, we often mean different things. What Then is Leadership?
Fear is a Poor Advisor (Moving Us Away From Ethical Thinking To Protect Us)
By Linda Fisher Thornton When we make decisions based on FEAR, our brains switch on the lower-level processor - which makes decisions based on a FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT response. The decision-making power of that part of our brain is extremely limited, turning our thoughts to lower level responses like "RUN!" or "HIT THEM FIRST." Obviously, ethical decisions must be based on better thinking than "RUN" and "HIT THEM FIRST." Our fear response takes us into PROTECT and DEFEND mode, and that mode causes us to shelter in place, retrench and protect our own interests. It drastically restricts the breadth of our thinking and doesn't give much energy to our impact - what our choices will do to others.
Guest Interview: Stay On Top Of Your Work Podcast
By Linda Fisher Thornton This week you can listen to a brand new interview I did with Kate Kurzawska, host of the Timecamp Stay on Top of Your Work Podcast!
Dealing With Complexity? Use Ethical Thinking (Guest Post)
By Linda Fisher Thornton We all need better ways to deal with difficult situations. Thinking on autopilot won't guide us through the grey areas. Michael McKinney published a guest post I wrote that digs into how to understand complexity. It is a timely topic, and as I shared in the article, "many leaders I talk with have a feeling that there is a more meaningful way of thinking and leading than what they’ve been seeing. "
Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 5)
By Linda Fisher Thornton To celebrate 7 Lenses going into its second printing, this is the fifth post in a special series focused on Why Ethical Thinking Matters. In case you missed them, take a look at Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 1), Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 2), Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 3) and Why Ethical Matters (Part 4). I’m hoping the strategies shared in this series will give you a fresh perspective on your plans for developing leaders in 2018.
Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 4)
By Linda Fisher Thornton To celebrate 7 Lenses going into its second printing, this is the fourth post in a special series focused on Why Ethical Thinking Matters. In case you missed them, here are the previous posts in the…
Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 3)
By Linda Fisher Thornton To celebrate 7 Lenses going into its second printing, this is the third post in a special series focused on Why Ethical Thinking Matters. In case you missed them, take a look at Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 1) and Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 2). I’m hoping the strategies shared in this series will give you a fresh perspective on your plans for developing leaders in 2018. You may already realize that ethical thinking is important, and if you do, I ask you to spread the word. To help you champion the cause in your organizations and on social media, I have included the business case below.
Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton To celebrate 7 Lenses going into its second printing, this is the second post in a special series focused on Why Ethical Thinking Matters. In case you missed it, last week's post was Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 1).
Why Ethical Thinking Matters (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton To celebrate 7 Lenses going into its second printing (big news!), this is the first post in a special series focused on Why Ethical Thinking Matters. I'm hoping the strategies shared in this series will give you a fresh perspective on your talent development plans for 2018. Ethical thinking drives ethical choices and behavior. Marcus Aurelius said "Our life is what our thoughts make it." According to Buddha, "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." I believe that leadership development efforts must address the values-based thinking behind good leadership, or it will not lead to good leadership. If we just teach people skills, without upgrading their thinking, we are not preparing them for success in the real world.
Lead With Questions, Not Answers
By Linda Fisher Thornton Leaders Ask The Hard Questions While it's tempting to try to "have the answers," good leaders instead ask the hard questions. They may be questions for which the world does not have workable answers. They may be questions that help reinvent a company or industry. They may be questions that must be answered now to prevent problems in the future. They may be questions that generate a much needed dialogue.
Leading in Context 