Unleash the Positive Power of Ethical Leadership
“Business Leader Future” Post Struck a Chord With Readers
The response to the February 1, 2012 post “Business Leader Future: A Sketch” has been overwhelming. Thanks so much to all of you who retweeted, commented on and shared it on your favorite social media channels.
At the end of this post is a visual story, via Storify, of selected reader comments.
Leading in a Complex Global Context
I did some research about global trends and challenges and how they will change the way we lead in the future. The answers I found explain why we sometimes feel that we’re in a perpetual state of disequilibrium.
Which companies are the world’s most ethical? It depends on who you ask! Three reports posted at Ethisphere.com, MillwardBrown.com and Forbes.com reveal their rankings.
Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies 2011 at Ethisphere.com organizes the mostethical companies by industry and country.
Ethics Impacts Top Brand Value
The Forbes Top Brands Report at Forbes.com lets us choose how you want to see the rankings by clicking the term at the top of the table. You may choose to rank based on Trust, Ethical Leadership, Innovation, Revenue, Advertising Spending or Industry. It’s interesting to see the names change when you compare the revenue rankings to the ethical leadership rankings.
Grey Areas in Leading Ethically
We see plenty of information about lying, cheating, stealing and other obvious ethical violations. It is more difficult to know what to do when we encounter behaviors that fall into ethical grey areas, particularly in term of relationships with other people.
The Impact of the Unethical Senior Leader
Take the common case of many organizational leaders trying to create an ethical culture, with one or more of the Senior Leaders not bought in or even blocking their efforts. The distraction, fear and chaos created by an unethical Senior Leader can drain the company of engagement, creativity and productivity.
Is blocking a company’s efforts to create an ethical culture unethical? You bet. It can be the cause of company failure because of the negative systemic effects that it creates. The systemic effects created by even one Senior Leader leading unethically include loss of trust, loss of employee engagement, loss of customers, lowered productivity, increased complaints, failure of departments to work together, sabotage, blaming, etc…
Correct it Quickly
When a Senior Leader is operating against the best interests of the company and its stakeholders, the problem needs to be corrected by the other Senior Leaders as quickly as possible. How?
The growing sustainability mindset is not industry-specific or topic-specific. It is showing up in industries as diverse as foods, fashion and construction. While some industries are tending to dismiss this change in consumer behavior as a trend that will pass, others have realized that the movement is deeply rooted and that they will be at a competitive disadvantage if they don’t respond.
There is a completely new mindset required to navigate the complex issues of our time. Sustainability is a word that is being used to describe the practice of operating as if our impact on the world and its resources truly matters…
Here is a website (called appropriately EthicsCrisis.com) where readers can confess their ethical misdeeds and have them rated by level from 1 to 10. Guess what? The ethical misdeed “We totally fabricated our numbers” is only rated a 6 out…
Leading in Context 