By Linda Fisher Thornton Monday I received the wonderful news that I was in the Trust Across America-Trust Around the World 2015 Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trust. I consider this a great honor because trust is critical to successful business. Trust improves communication, culture, performance, engagement and results. Today I'm sharing some inspiring quotes from recent trust reports about why "it's all about the trust" - why trust has such broad importance and impact in work relationships and organizations:
Tag: 7 Lenses
12 Gifts of Leadership (Will You Give Them This Year?)
By Linda Fisher Thornton How do we lead when we want to bring out the best in people? These 12 Gifts of Leadership are on the wish lists of employees around the world. They aren't expensive. They don't require dealing with the hustle…
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9 Questions for Ethical Leaders in The New Year
By Linda Fisher Thornton As we head into the New Year, use these questions to plan how you will transform your leadership, your workplace and your world.
Ethical Leadership 2015: Graphics That Tell the Story
By Linda Fisher Thornton The graphics at the links below tell the story of the future of responsible leadership. They describe the kind of leadership that is respectful, caring and ethically aware. This is the positive leadership that engages employees in meaningful work and helps builds an ethical culture. My hope is that you will share this story with your leadership team and plan now for the future, using the questions that follow.
Global Sentiment About Taking Responsibility
By Linda Fisher Thornton A clearer picture of global ethics is coming into view. In this clearer picture, we know what's important and see how far our responsibilities extend into the global community. We understand that business leadership includes responsibility for much more than just making a profit and obeying the law. Ethical leaders have begun to realize how connected our global community is. Customers for our products may live in 50 or more countries. Product parts may be made in multiple countries, each with different laws and regulations.
Trust-Building Requires Trust-Giving
By Linda Fisher Thornton Good leaders Intentionally build trust. They build it through everyday words and actions. They build it by demonstrating that they can be trusted. They also build it when they extend trust to others. Many leaders wait for people to prove themselves before they trust them, but trust is reciprocal. Leaders set the tone for trust-building by how open they are to trusting others first. Are you reaching out? Or are you waiting for your employees to have a "perfect" record before trusting them?
Full Accountability For Ethics: The New Normal
By Linda Fisher Thornton I recently blogged about trends in ethical leadership, sharing 10 forces that are fueling a movement toward higher expectations for values-based leadership. Today I want to explore how those trends help explain what we are seeing in ethics cases in the news. Recent headlines have described more severe sanctions than people have seen in the past, in response to ethics problems in sports, politics, business and beyond. Some people may have wondered, "Why are people now being convicted for doing the same things that others before them have done?"
“Hearing” All Stakeholders (Even When They’re Not in the Room)?
By Linda Fisher Thornton A quiet group of stakeholders is being considered in leadership conversations. They can't weigh in on major decisions, but they have a lot at stake in the decisions that get made. They are silent stakeholders, and the decisions we make in our meetings every day affects them directly.
Using Negative Examples to Teach Ethics? Why It’s Not Enough.
By Linda Fisher Thornton How many times have we tried to teach people about ethics by explaining every detail of what it doesn't look like? We describe laws and regulations and ethics guidelines in great detail, then ask attendees if there are any questions. After learning in great detail how to stay out of trouble, the thought on their minds may just be "Okay, now I know what NOT to do." We can't teach ethics by giving people negative examples.
Critical Roles of the (Ethical) CEO
By Linda Fisher Thornton There have been many stories about unethical CEOs in the news, but not as many about the good ones. That's a shame, because the ethical CEO is a positive powerhouse - devoted to serving employees, customers, and communities. I thought it would be helpful to describe some of the critical functions of the ethical CEO that enable organizational success. Intentionally investing in these roles creates the kind of workplaces that attract top employees and devoted customers.
5 Reasons Ethical Culture Doesn’t Just Happen
By Linda Fisher Thornton Don't assume that an ethical culture will just happen in your workplace. Even if you are a good leader, ethical culture is a delicate thing, requiring intentional positive leadership and daily tending. It requires more than good leadership, more than trust building, and more than good hiring. Why does building an ethical culture require so much more than good leadership? Ethical culture is a system of systems, and just putting in good leadership, trust-building and good hiring doesn't make it healthy.
13 (Culture-Numbing) Side Effects of Toxic Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton
A reader commented on the post Can A Toxic Leader Be Ethical? Yes and No requesting more information about the organizational side-effects of toxic leadership. If you have ever worked for a toxic leader (myself included) you have already experienced the powerful negative side effects first-hand.
When people are treated as "less than human," "less than capable" or as "pawns in a game" some extremely negative things happen in the organization that derail its success. Attempts to control what people do and say makes them feel inadequate and unappreciated. Withholding information to preserve power creates an environment of suspicion.
How to Build an Ethical Culture
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Today I'm sharing hand-picked resources about how to build an ethical culture. The most recent one was just published this week by Government Executive magazine. They acknowledge complexity, and are based on performance improvement and ethical principles.
This collection provides practical advice for how to build high trust cultures and keep the ethics conversation alive. Use it to create workplaces where people thrive and where "ethical" is a way of life.
10 Things Trustworthy Leaders Do
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Trustworthy leaders know how to create a workplace where everyone is valued, where leadership is sincere and respectful, and where great work can get done. How do they do it? What is it in particular that trustworthy leaders do?
Getting Past Murky Uncertainty
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Workplace issues are complex and opinions vary about the right thing to do in challenging situations. This complexity and uncertainty combine to create a "murky uncertainty" that may keep people from giving us their best, most ethical performance.
Leading in Context 