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".
When Should Ethical Leadership be Practiced?
The general pattern of most sections in this book includes these when? and who? questions. In this case, they are easily answered. Ethical leadership should be practiced all the time by anyone in a leadership position – whether that position is formal or informal, intentional or unintentional. There are no times when it is more appropriate than others, nor are there people for whom it is more appropriate than for others.
There are definitely times when ethical leadership is more difficult than not – when there are hard choices to make, or when the right choice is clear but unpleasant (confronting a nice person who is simply not doing his job, and making everyone else's harder as a result, for example, or acting against your own self-interest). In fact, the difficult times are when ethical leadership is most important because the stakes are high.
The stakes in ethical leadership may also vary widely, depending on the level and responsibilities of the leadership in question. Few directors of community-based organizations find themselves faced with the kinds of life-and-death decisions that may be experienced by national leaders, for instance. Yet their decisions can still have serious ethical and human consequences, even though those consequences may play out in a more limited sphere.
Ethical leadership is part – although by no means all – of the definition of good leadership. Being an ethical leader is a full-time job – it is not something you can put on and off at will. You either are or you are not, and if you are, you have to try to be one all the time.