Our moral grounding is more important than our goals and opinions. When we let our goals and opinions drive our thinking, we begin to believe that “anything goes” in the quest to meet those goals or defend those opinions. When our moral compass drives our thinking, we will question any goals that benefit us at the expense of others. Everything we do needs to be morally grounded. We need to assume that every issue is an ethical issue and approach it accordingly.
Tag: Leadership
Decoding The DNA of Ethical Education
By Linda Fisher Thornton We have learned that human DNA is not fixed, but changing. We all have DNA markers that are turned on or off by our life choices and experiences. There are specific things educators do to enable ethical education. Like markers in our DNA, these important factors in education switch on responsible education. In their absence, a switch turns to "off" that damages people's willingness and ability to learn.
Ethical Thinking: Task Shortcuts Don’t Apply to People
By Linda Fisher Thornton What is flawed thinking? What harm can it cause? What can we do about it? This post looks at the harm we can do when we fall victim to our very human tendency to use flawed thinking about people who are not like us. If we don't question an assumption or a piece of information, we may automatically "file it" and let it become the basis for decisions and actions that are unethical.
Ethical Thinking, Ethical Self: 5 Things You Need to Know
By Linda Fisher Thornton Developing an “ethical self” is important for good citizenship and good leadership. But what does it involve? There’s more to developing and maintaining an ethical self than trying to make good choices. Making ethical choices isn’t easy, and while we’re struggling, our brains are actually working against us.
The Missing Domain: Ethical Thinking (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton The first post in this series, “The Missing Domain: Ethical Thinking” explored WHY leaders need to fill the gap and help people develop ethical thinking. This post will begin to unravel HOW to do that.
Mindset or Competency: Which is More Important?
By Linda Fisher Thornton This post will explore the interesting relationship between leadership mindset and competency. Which is most important? What happens to our leadership capability when our mindset is out of date? How we think about something impacts what we do about it. Nick Petrie, Center For Creative Leadership, writes in Vertical Leadership Development Part I that “In terms of leadership, the stage from which you are thinking and acting matters a lot. To be effective, the leader’s thinking must be equal or superior to the complexity of the environment.”
Leadership: “Leaning Out” For Growth
By Linda Fisher Thornton Some leaders actively avoid discomfort, not realizing that they are also avoiding the necessary growth that propels them to their best leadership. Great leadership doesn’t happen by itself. It happens when a leader decides to intentionally learn and grow, and to pursue that growth into the Discomfort Zone.
What is (and Isn’t) Leadership?
By Linda Fisher Thornton It occurred to me while pruning shrubs that we have many mistaken
Ethical Leaders: 10 Behaviors to Avoid
By Linda Fisher Thornton In the lifelong quest to become our best selves, we need to stretch and grow and learn from our mistakes. Being a flexible and willing learner, we will more easily stay competent as the world changes. Here are 10 things to avoid if we are to accomplish the elusive goal of becoming our best selves:
Ethical Leadership Development: Preparing Leaders For the Future
By Linda Fisher Thornton I spoke with Human Resource leaders attending a Richmond SHRM Strategic Leadership Conference about The Future of Ethics and Business Leadership. The lens I used to frame the discussion was leadership development – how we can prepare leaders to lead ethically in a highly complex, connected future. Here are some highlights from my presentation – a few of the important success principles for developing “Ethical Leader Future.
Wishing You Hope
By Linda Fisher Thornton Thank you, friends, for reading and sharing this Blog in 2023. I appreciate all the ways you have helped forward the movement toward authentic ethical leadership. Only by bringing out our best as leaders are we able to bring out the best in those we lead. As we head into this holiday season, I wish you hope. Hope is what keeps us going when problems seem impossible to solve, when time is short, and when solutions are distant. If your hopefulness should ever falter, remember these important words.
10 Leadership Lessons From Pokemon Go
By Linda Fisher Thornton
I resisted playing the wildly popular game Pokemon Go as long as I could, but the world was playing it (including my teenagers) so awhile back I decided to give it a go. As I learned the basics of the game I noticed that its structure is aligned with some of the principles of good leadership. Whether that similarity is accidental or intentional, I can't say, but I am sharing my observations in this post.
What’s the Difference? Is It Fake News or Misinformation?
By Linda Fisher Thornton Most people are concerned about how much information that is "out there" isn't true. And UPenn found that "misinformation works much more easily than the efforts to undo it. Their data revealed that misinformation is almost always accepted as fact — a staggering 99.6% of the time — whereas attempts to correct it succeed only in only 83% of cases." (UPenn, Misinformation, Misconceptions, and Conspiracy Theories in Communication)
Caring For a Positive Culture
By Linda Fisher Thornton I have written a lot about ethical culture building, but there is one simple concept that is a game changer that many leaders overlook. It is the importance of simultaneously managing two things well in order to shore up both sides of the system.
Building an Ethical Culture (Part 5)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Leaders are in a unique position to make ethics a priority through their everyday actions, but simply modeling ethics isn’t nearly enough. Here is a starting list of 5 actions leaders can take that move organizations toward an ethical culture, besides telling people how important ethics is and demonstrating it in everyday behavior and choices.
Leading in Context 