By Linda Fisher Thornton
Which levels shown in the graphic below represent ethical leadership?
Is Just Following Laws Ethical Leadership?
The first level on the left, sidestepping laws and ethics codes, is clearly not ethical leadership. This self-focused, opportunistic approach to leadership represents a leader operating below the law or seeking loopholes for personal gain.
What about the second level, in the middle? Is complying with laws and ethics codes ethical leadership? When leaders and businesses operate below the level of laws and regulations, they are punished.
The punishment threshold, though, is definitely not the same as the level of ethical leadership that we need in organizations. If we settle for leadership at this level, we will be missing many other important aspects of ethical leadership that are well above the punishment threshold.
Increasing Expectations
Following laws and regulations is just above the punishment threshold for ethical leadership.
Expectations are moving to a much higher level, a level at which we are expected to do much more. Look at the third level, the highest level of the graphic. Aren’t transparency, sustainability and honoring human rights now expected of all businesses? I believe they are, and there are other factors we need to consider that are not on this list. The minimum standard is gradually moving to a higher level as we better understand the impact of our choices on others in a global society.
There are more ways of interpreting ethical leadership than just the three shown in this graphic, but the graphic illustrates the point that leaders are interpreting “ethical leadership” at very different levels.
As we understand our global interdependence more clearly, the expectations for leading ethically will only increase. Aiming for the principled level of ethical leadership, the highest level, prepares us to meet our challenges as responsible global citizens.
Questions For Reflection
- Which of the three levels shown in the graphic best depicts my perception of what ethical leadership includes?
- How can I convey the message to those I lead that expectations for ethical leadership and ethical behavior are increasing?
- How will I systematically learn what I’ll need to know in order to respond to the higher expectations of ethical leaders?
- How will I share what I learn with others?
For more, see Linda’s book 7 Lenses and the 21 Question Assessment: How Current is My Message About Ethics?
2014 Bronze Axiom Business Book Award Winner
About 7 Lenses
Info@LeadinginContext.com @leadingincontxt @7Lenses
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Leading in Context 
Reblogged this on Gr8fullsoul.
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Interesting quiz, Daniel. It does educate us on the scope of the ethical issues and the difficult dynamics that investigation leaders may face.
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Good post / important issues…
I wonder whether you caught a film shown on the BBC this Monday? – which documented Richard Feynman’s involvement with the commission that was set up to explore what went wrong on the Space Shuttle Challenger in ’86. It was a great study of both ethical and unethical leadership – and was even part-funded by the Open University who then produced this quick follow-up quiz to see how you might cope in ‘leading an ethical investigation’ (a fictional investigation inspired by the Challenger film) – You can do the quiz here, it’s very good (and more interesting in light of this post I think) – and you can also watch the film (but maybe not before you do the quiz! As that would be cheating 🙂 ) But on the other hand I do recommend the film. William Hurt is excellent as Feynman.
Enjoy – http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/tv/ou-on-the-bbc-the-challenger
(Hopefully that’s not too off-topic – I don’t think it is!)
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