The current news agenda is awash with stories of deficit in ethical behaviour among leaders – the Vietnamese businesswoman convicted this week of siphoning £billions from a bank she owns 90% of, multiple fraud cases against an ex and wannabe again US president, and the Post Office scandal rumbles loudly on.
Ethics and morals can seem old-fashioned concepts yet they go to the very heart of leadership and the responsibility it confers to do the right thing.
If we aren’t experienced by others as honest and trustworthy, as acting with integrity, as focused on serving others (rather than self and shareholders), we’ll be destroying others’ trust and confidence in us. Eventually the entity we lead, team or organisation, will fall into dysfunction and breakdown.
Doing the right thing consistently is challenging. Sometimes the choice we must make won’t be popular. We are confronted by increasingly complex problems in the world in which we operate. And the privilege of leadership increasingly demands we place our attention on the wider field or system of which we are a part so we are contributing to a better world.
That means our decisions and choices need to be of a higher order, both ethically sound and contributing to a greater good. Making the right choice, doing the right thing, requires deep reflection on the challenge or opportunity confronting us and the wider context in which it is set so we bring positive impact.
We must check in with our values and listen to what our heart is telling us is the right course. And, in choosing our heart as our guide we’re opening to the well of courage, love and compassion that will ensure we choose well.