PRDV231: Elements of Ethical Leadership

While this section generally refers to leaders as if they were the people at the head of organizations, initiatives, and communities, we recognize that anyone might take on a leadership role at any time. The question of ethical leadership is not only to be considered by people with official leadership titles – director, coordinator, chair, etc. The general guidelines for ethical leadership, with only a little adjustment, could double as general guidelines for ethical living. Putting the greater good above your own personal interests, for instance, is one of the ways that most societies and cultures define heroism. Thus, this section is not only for those who are designated as leaders: it is for everyone.

Just as most people are not born leaders, but learn to be so through experience and hard work, people – even highly ethical people – learn to practice ethical leadership over time. Here, we will present some general guidelines for ethical leadership, and then look more specifically at what being an ethical leader entails.

Ethical Leadership Requires a Clear and Coherent Ethical Framework that the Leader Can Draw on in Making Decisions and Taking Action

A coherent ethical framework or philosophy does not pop into your head overnight. It develops over time through your experience, your background, what you have been taught, and the actions of role models. In other words, your ethical framework is built from everything that is gone into making you who you are.

That does not mean that your personal history has to include a lot of instruction in ethics, or even role models who demonstrated highly ethical behavior. For some people, ethical standards arise in opposition to what they have seen and experienced. For others, they grow out of cultural or religious teaching, or out of academic learning in such areas as philosophy, history, psychology, or literature. For most of us, an ethical framework probably incorporates a combination of several of these factors, and others as well.

An ethical structure is necessary because it provides a guideline for making ethical choices. Its content – the actual standards that each of us holds himself to – may vary from person to person and, to some extent, from situation to situation. What is important is that having an ethical framework provides you with a basis for making difficult ethical decisions, rather than leaving you to struggle with each separate decision in a vacuum. It is like the difference between building a house from a set of plans, and building it from guesswork, one piece of wood at a time.

Many situations or problems just do not allow for simple solutions, or even satisfactory ones. The first situation at the beginning of this section – close down a site to keep a program functioning at a high level in the face of budget cuts – is one in which people are likely to be hurt no matter what decision is made. A coherent ethical framework may not present you with a clear decision, but it will tell you what factors you must consider, and help you sort out which are more important. That process may still leave you with an array of choices, none of which seems totally acceptable. Ultimately, hard decisions are made not by ethical structures, but by people, who bring their ethical standards and their human feelings – as well as the opinions of others – into the mix.

Three necessary characteristics of a useful ethical framework are:

• Internal consistency. Each of its principles should fit with all the others, rather than contradicting any of them.
• Proactivity. It should tell you what to do, not what not to do.
• Dynamism. It should be constantly reexamined and readjusted as your ethical thinking evolves.

Having such a foundation does not make you an ethical leader, but it helps your development as an ethical person, a necessary characteristic for an ethical leader.

Your Ethical Framework Should Agree with that of the Ethical Framework, Vision, and Mission of the Organization or Initiative

If you do not buy into the ethical stance of the organization, you should not take the job in the first place. An organization that is dedicated to collaborative decision-making and equal status as an ethical principle, for instance, cannot be ethically led by someone who truly believes her ethical duty is to make decisions for everyone.

An exception here is when you have been hired to change the ethical framework and/or the culture of the organization. This might happen if a previous director proved to be highly unethical – misusing funds, treating staff members abusively or with disrespect – and a major shift in the organizational climate is called for. In that case, you are expected to model and import a different set of ethical standards and assumptions, in order to restore the integrity of the organization.

An implication for ethical leadership here is that the vision and mission of the organization must be uppermost in any decision-making. An ethical leader does nothing to compromise the philosophy or the vision and mission of the organization. You should not, for example, accept funding that would require the organization to do something contrary to its best interests or ethical standards (e.g., use methods that it believes are ineffective or harmful).

An interesting ethical question arises when an organization is offered money by a funder whose philosophy or world view is contrary to that of the organization (a corporate foundation whose parent corporation has an anti-gay stance, for instance, or mistreats its workers in some way). One way of looking at this situation is that it is simply unethical to take money from such a source. Another is that, as long as the funder does not require you to endorse or act on its unethical stance or behavior, it is better that the money goes to your organization than to one that does in fact support the funder's philosophy. Some would see this as taking money under false pretenses, others as using it well. The "right" answer here really depends on the ethical standards of the organization.

Ethics Should Be a Topic of Discussion

Just as an ethical framework must be constantly reexamined, both the ethics of an organization and the ethics of everyone in it should be regularly discussed by all concerned. Everyone's ethical assumptions, including the leader's, should be open to questioning, and everyone should be willing to hear that questioning without defensiveness and to consider it seriously. Only by a serious discussion of ethical questions, and being willing to examine your own ethical assumptions can you continue to develop your ethical understanding. It was mentioned above that an ethical framework grows out of all you learn and experience. If you extend that statement to its logical conclusion, it follows that your ethical framework continues to grow as you continue to learn and have experiences, and that process – if you are consciously examining ethical questions – goes on throughout life.

Ethics Should Be Out in the Open

You should be able and willing to explain your ethical framework and your ethical decisions, and to stand by them (unless you are convinced by someone else's argument that they are wrong or lacking in some way). Furthermore, you have a responsibility to stand up for what you believe in, not just to talk about it.

Ethical Thought Must be Connected to Action

The best intentions in the world mean nothing if they remain intentions. Just holding an ethical viewpoint or philosophy does not constitute ethical leadership. That viewpoint or philosophy must be translated into action, in both general and specific instances (i.e. in the way you treat people and steer the organization over time, as well as in the individual decisions you make).

Ethical Leadership is a Shared Process

Everyone in an organization or community should have the chance to exercise it – and to follow through with exercising it – when appropriate. That may be a matter of questioning a decision or action, of initiating one, of being a role model in a given situation, or of upholding the integrity of the organization.

Remember that, as a leader, you are a role model whether you choose to be or not. People will take their cues about the way the organization should be, about organizational culture, and about what constitutes ethical behavior, from you. Remember that, and act accordingly. (That means paying attention not only to what you say and do, but to the appearance of it: regardless of the reality, you shouldn't do anything that looks or could be interpreted as unethical.)

As an ethical leader, you should encourage others to take leadership roles, and mentor them when they do. This fosters the development of ethical leaders within the organization or community, which improves its functioning and gives it more resources when a problem or crisis arises. In addition, it trains a new group of leaders who can assume more responsibility as time goes on – thus relieving pressure on you – and take over leadership when you move on to something else.