Healthy Media Consumption

By Linda Fisher Thornton I've blogged about how to spot fake news and variables complicating media ethics. Today I'll explore the characteristics healthy media consumption. Let's begin with a dose of healthy skepticism.  Healthy Skepticism You can't believe everything you see. Photographs and videos that appear to be "proof" of a story may have been altered. Your best best is to choose your sources of information carefully so that you can reasonably be assured that what you are seeing and hearing is real.

Interview on the Leveraging Thought Leadership Podcast

By Linda Fisher ThorntonToday I'm sharing my recent interview with Peter Winick on the Leveraging Thought Leadership Podcast.  We had an interesting conversation about my journey including how I got my start, challenges I faced and "growing into" this important work.

3 Steps For Dusting Off Your Leadership in the New Year

By Linda Fisher Thornton When we start a New Year, it's is a wonderful time to take stock of our leadership. The intense, conflicted global environment we face is formidable. Sitting still won't keep our leadership up to the task.  It's definitely not a good time to let our leadership get dusty from a lack of attention. It's time to take action. Here are three things you can do to dust off your leadership and discover your best capabilities this year: 

MindTools Expert Interview Podcast With Linda Fisher Thornton

By Linda Fisher Thornton I recently did an interview with Rachel Salaman for the MindTools Expert Interview Podcast.  We had a lively conversation about ethical leadership and the concepts from my book 7 Lenses: Learning the Principles and Practices of Ethical Leadership.  Click on the graphic below to read the MindTools blog post featuring highlights from that interview and an excerpt of the podcast.

Grey Areas: Our Choices Define Us (Part 2)

By Linda Fisher Thornton This post is an updated version of a reader favorite.  There Will Always Be Grey Areas There will always be ethical grey areas.  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. Grey areas are difficult for anyone to handle but leaders bear the additional weight of needing to set the tone for the organization. Each decision impacts the ethics of the organization.

What is Meaningful Leadership? (Part 2)

By Linda Fisher Thornton What is meaningful leadership? In Part 1 we explored how leaders create meaningful work settings so others can excel. In Part 2, we look at a leader's own quest for authenticity as a factor in meaningful leadership. What is Meaningful Leadership? A Quest For Authenticity Meaningful leadership is focused on authenticity, not just acquisition. That requires seeing beyond just portfolio growth to human growth. It means learning to see how the two are connected.

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. 

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?

Leaders, Why You Need Disequilibrium (Part 2)

By Linda Fisher Thornton This post is Part 2 in a series. In case you missed the first one, here is 450th Post: Leaders, Why You Need Disequilibrium (Part 1). In the first post, I explored why leaders need to embrace disequilibrium. In Part 2, I explore how disequilibrium helps leaders deal with catastrophic change. Disequilibrium Drives Adaptation Accepting disequilibrium instead of trying to fight it, we can turn our attention to figuring things out as the landscape changes around us.

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 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.

Use It Or Lose It

By Linda Fisher Thornton I recently started studying the German language again, relearning it a little bit every day. I studied it for years as a teen, and lived in Austria for a summer as a young adult. While I was once fluent, I haven't practiced regularly and have become rusty over the years.  It doesn't take long to begin to lose vocabulary, grammar and confidence if we're not using a language regularly. Losing fluency gradually over time brings to mind what happens to our leadership if we're not learning new things every day.