Unleash the Positive Power of Ethical Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton
In Part 1 of this series on Recognizing Ethical Issues, I addressed the gaps in our thinking that require us to develop an ethical alert system. in Part 2, I explored why some leaders who want to do the right thing still don’t “do the work” to learn how to do it. In Part 3, I’ll dig into the importance of ethical awareness as the basis for ethical decision making.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
The post Should Trust Be Freely Offered or Conditionally Earned generated lively discussions in LinkedIn Groups about extending trust when we meet someone new. It was clear from reading the discussions that trust has many different dimensions.
Readers shared how they perceived trust – some saw it as an emotion, some saw it as a relationship, others described it as a mindset. They took the discussion beyond the original question and explored how we extend trust to others based on many variables.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
When we meet someone new, should we trust them right away? Should we assume that they are trustworthy and give them the benefit of the doubt, or should we hold back until we are sure that they are worthy of our trust?
By Linda Fisher Thornton
I previously wrote about the problem of selective respect and today I’ll address it’s evil twin. It has been happening right in front of us and has been amplified by social media – leaders speaking from a perspective of selective inclusion. This week, I’m sharing a collection of posts that explain the importance of full inclusion and how to recognize examples that stray from it.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
We’ve been through a lot. We’re tired, worn out, overwhelmed, and stretched too thin. We’re worried about our health and well-being and the health and well-being of those we love. We can’t lead as if we were in normal times because we’re definitely not and everyone knows it.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ethical leadership is evolving, and expectations are increasing. As we get closer to the New Year, here are some questions to ponder:
By Linda Fisher Thornton
This series includes 22 quotes (linked to posts with leadership guidance) to inspire you and help you improve your leader development as we head into the new year. Part 1 included the first 11. Here are 11 more:
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Employers using stretch goals to motivate employees to higher levels of performance need to take note of the ethical risk. If the push for higher performance doesn’t come with an emphasis on ethical behavior, it may be encouraging cheating.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
The human journey. We’re all taking it, but we don’t always know where it’s headed. We can’t always see where we’ve been until later, when we have the long-term perspective and can begin to make sense of the twists and turns we’ve taken throughout our lives.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ego-driven leaders want to be “right” even when the evidence shows otherwise. They see rightness as something fixed that they can control. Of course, it isn’t fixed and they can’t control it, but they may not want to be confused with the facts. Conversely, when ego is not driving the thinking process, leaders can adapt to changing information and circumstances and change their minds.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Richard J. Cordes write in Making sense of sensemaking: What it is and what it means for pandemic research (Atlantic Council), that “Sensemaking is our brain’s response to novel or potentially unexpected stimuli as it integrates new information into an ever-updating model of the world.” While the research on Sensemaking is deep and complex, there are some practical questions leaders who are trying to make good decisions and help others make sense of a torrent of information can use to begin to identify and map out meaning.
Leaders who make sensemaking a priority will not only make better decisions themselves, they’ll also help employees make better decisions. People don’t just need leaders to share relevant data, they need them to share observations and insights about what data means and why the meaning is important. They need leaders to make sense out of information.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ethical leadership isn’t something we can ever say we’ve fully accomplished. It’s not about arriving at any particular place, or about achieving a certain level of knowledge. Just knowing about ethics and leadership won’t get us very far in an information-flooded, globally shifting, and unpredictable world where we are under time pressure and held accountable for making ethical choices under ever-more-extreme conditions including the current global pandemic.
LeadinginContext.com
Resources By Topic
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Ethical leadership failures can be caused by different types of problems that may compound. Some of these problems are individual and others may be embedded in the organizational culture.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Quibbling about terminology –the words used to describe unethical behaviors as they are uniquely defined by different groups – just misdirects our attention away from some foundational, easy-to-spot signs of unethical leadership.
Leading in Context 