Ethical Leadership

Read this text, which explains how ethical leaders should treat everyone fairly and base their judgments on "coherent, generally-accepted principles" such as "honesty, justice, fairness, avoiding harm to others, taking responsibility for one's actions, [and] putting the greater good ahead of one's own interests".

What Do We Mean by Ethical Leadership?

We cannot really discuss ethical leadership without looking first at ethics. Ask 100 people – or 100 philosophers, for that matter – what they mean by ethics, and you might get 100 different answers. The struggle to define ethical behavior probably goes back to prehistory, and serves as a cornerstone of both ancient Greek philosophy and most major world religions.

Ethical behavior, in its simplest terms, is knowing and doing what is right. The difficulty is in defining right. Different individuals, different cultures, and different religions define it in different ways. The accepted treatment of women and attitudes toward slavery in different cultures and at different times in history provide prime examples of how what is right can vary.

Many people would define ethics and morality as identical, but it is helpful to view them somewhat differently. Ethics are based on a set of social norms and/or logically coherent philosophical principles; morality is based on a (usually broader) set of beliefs, religious and cultural values, and other principles that may or may not be logically coherent. Morality can, however, form the basis for an ethical system.

John Rawls, one of the most important ethical philosophers of the 20th century, makes a distinction between comprehensive moral systems, such as religions, which cover not only behavior, but such issues as humanity's place in the universe, and less comprehensive systems, which cover the political, social, and/or economic spheres. Ethical leadership, at least for the purposes of this section, falls into the second category.

Even the meaning of ethics is open to interpretation. Some of the different ways that the term is defined:

Situational ethics. What is right depends on the context of the situation. What is right in one situation may be wrong in another.
Cultural relativism. Whatever a culture deems right is ethical for that culture. No one has any right to judge the ethics of another culture except on its own terms.
Professional ethics. Many professions – law, medicine, and psychotherapy are perhaps the most familiar, but the list is long and varied – have their own specific codes of ethics, which all members of those professions are expected to follow. Members of those professions are considered ethical in their practice if they adhere to the code of their profession.
Value-based ethics. The assumption here is that everyone has a set of values she lives by. A person is behaving ethically if her behavior matches her values.
Rule-based ethics. If you follow the rules – of your organization, your peer group, your culture, your religion, etc. – you are behaving ethically.

None of the conceptions in this list is perfect, but these last two, in particular, have a glaring problem: not all value systems or rules reflect what is right, by most people's definition. In the 1980's, for instance, many people considered the ideas in Robert Ringer's 1977 book, Looking Out for #1, which explains human behavior in terms of selfishness and self-preservation – to be an excellent foundation for a value system of self-centeredness. In a more extreme case, Hitler's value system, which many Germans adopted in the 20th century, glorified Aryan supremacy, and resulted in the murders of millions of people.

Although the law is a set of rules, simply acting legally is not necessarily the same as acting ethically. Many actions that are in themselves not illegal – using other people emotionally, treating your employees as disposable objects – are nonetheless unethical by most standards. By the same token, breaking an unjust law – sitting in at a segregated lunch counter, for instance – could be supremely ethical.

Ethics based on fairness. Ethical behavior consists of making sure everyone is treated fairly.
Ethics based on a set of coherent, generally-accepted principles. These are meant to be principles that most rational people can accept: honesty, justice, fairness, avoiding harm to others, taking responsibility for your actions, putting the greater good ahead of your own interests, etc.

There are problems with each of these conceptions, the main one for most of them still being the issue we started with: exactly what is right, and who defines it? At the same time, most of these ideas of ethics have their strong points as well, and those ideas can perhaps be incorporated into an ethical framework that is not so easily set out, but covers a broad range of situations.

The author's attempt at a definition of ethical behavior, based on what seems to be the general thinking on the subject, is this:

Ethical behavior reflects a value system that grows out of a coherent view of the world, based on equity, justice, the needs and rights of others as well as oneself, a sense of obligation to others and to the society, and the legitimate needs and standards of the society.

This is hardly meant to be a perfect definition. Just what constitutes the legitimate needs and standards of society, for instance, has been argued over for centuries, and is constantly changing as societies evolve.

So, given that even the definition of ethics can be unclear, how do you ensure that your decisions and actions are ethical? Again, there seem to be as many answers to this question as there are people willing to answer it. One good set of answers comes from the West Virginia University Extension, in a course for volunteer leaders devised by Patricia Pinnell and Shirley Eagan. It takes the form of four questions to ask yourself about any decision or action you take:

Kid on Your Shoulder: Would you do it if your kids were watching?
Front Page of the Newspaper: Would you like to see it published on page 1 of your local newspaper?
Golden Rule: Would you be happy being on the receiving end of the decision or action? In other words, treat others as you would like them to treat you.
Rule of universality: Would it be okay if everyone did it?

If you can honestly answer "yes" to all or most of these questions, then it is likely that your decision or action is truly ethical.

Ethical Leadership

Ethical leadership really has two elements. First, ethical leaders must act and make decisions ethically, as must ethical people in general. But, secondly, ethical leaders must also lead ethically – in the ways they treat people in everyday interaction, in their attitudes, in the ways they encourage, and in the directions in which they steer their organizations or institutions or initiatives.

Ethical leadership is both visible and invisible. The visible part is in the way the leader works with and treats others, in his behavior in public, in his statements and his actions. The invisible aspects of ethical leadership lie in the leader's character, in his decision-making process, in his mindset, in the set of values and principles on which he draws, and in his courage to make ethical decisions in tough situations.

Ethical leaders are ethical all the time, not just when someone is looking; and they are ethical over time, proving again and again that ethics are an integral part of the intellectual and philosophical framework they use to understand and relate to the world.

Some important components of ethical leadership (we discuss these in "How do you practice ethical leadership?"):

The ability to put aside your ego and personal interests for the sake of the cause you support, the organization you lead, the needs of the people you serve, and/or the greater good of the community or the world.
The willingness to encourage and take seriously feedback, opinions different from your own, and challenges to your ideas and proposed actions.
The encouragement of leadership in others.
Making the consideration and discussion of ethics and ethical questions and issues part of the culture of the group, organization, or initiative.
Maintaining and expanding the competence that you owe those who trust you to lead the organization in the right direction and by the best and most effective methods.
Accepting responsibility and being accountable.
Perhaps most important, understanding the power of leadership and using it well – sharing it as much as possible, never abusing it, and exercising it only when it will benefit the individuals or organization you work with, the community, or the society.