Leading in Context

Unleash the Positive Power of Ethical Leadership

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Ethical Leadership Development: High Level View

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

What is Ethical Leadership Development?

Ethical leadership development is the ongoing process of guiding leaders to become ethical people and ethical leaders. It is not the same thing as compliance training or following legal requirements, although those are also important. This is the human development that happens over time to bring leaders to the point of being able to handle what the world throws at them using ethical thinking and action. The way we develop leaders impacts their growth and readiness to make successful and ethical choices when faced with challenging situations.

Top Post Series of 2023: Leading in Context Blog

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

The Top Post Series for last year on the Leading in Context Blog reflected how to navigate the nuances of ethical culture building. It featured specific areas of focus and strategies for building an ethical culture in your organization.

5 Phrases to Watch For: Low-Trust Culture

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

Treating People With Respect Builds Trust

How we treat people is an important part of ethical leadership. We know that when leaders treat people with respect, trust is built within the organization. Treating people with respect includes listening to their ideas and working together to accomplish the mission of the organization.

Hallmarks of Ethical Leadership (Part 6)

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

In Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 I shared defining characteristics of ethical leadership. In Part 4 I addressed the importance of fear-free leadership. In Part 5 I explored the importance of listening to all stakeholders, including those who are not in the room. In Part 6 let’s take a look at the importance of Trust.

Making Ethics Clear

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

Workplace issues are complex and opinions vary about the right thing to do in challenging situations. This complexity and uncertainty combine to create a “murky uncertainty” that may keep people from giving us their best, most ethical performance.

Leaders may intend to create an ethical culture, but may still have difficulty getting past the murky uncertainty about what ethics means. To move beyond the uncertainty, we need to take the time to talk about ethical behavior and how we will make ethical decisions.

Ethical Leaders Care (Part 2)

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

Using an ethics of care changes how we think and act as leaders. It helps us remember that each person is important and that treating each other with care is part of our shared human experience. Caring shows that we know that people are more than task-doers and that leading is more than tactical, more than obligatory, more than just a job

What Drives Our Thinking?

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

When we talk about “ethical leadership” we are talking about the intersection of multiple connected variables that affect our choices. We choose our approach based on a number of variables that are influenced by our level of learning, growth and experience.

Here are some of the variables (which may be influenced by learning and development) that converge to define our sense of what “ethical leadership” includes.

Building an Ethical Culture (Part 4)

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

Ethical Culture is a System of Systems

Don’t assume that an ethical culture will just happen in your workplace. Even if you are a good leader, ethical culture is a delicate thing, requiring intentional positive leadership and daily tending. It requires more than good leadership, more than trust building, and more than good hiring.

Why does building an ethical culture require so much more than good leadership? Ethical culture is a system of systems, and just putting in good leadership, trust-building and good hiring doesn’t make it healthy.

Building an Ethical Culture (Part 3)

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

Ethics has a compounding effect on culture, and our leadership choices determine whether that effect will be positive or negative. Being diligent about ethics in every decision brings the culture ethics dividends. Being careless about ethics brings ethics penalties.

The tricky part about managing ethical culture is that every leader decision and action throughout the organization is changing the equation. The culture equation is changing in real time, every day.

Advancing Ethics in Your Organization (Part 4)

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

The focus of this week’s post is on Ways to Inspire Leaders to Lead With Positive Ethical Values. Here are 3 ways to inspire leaders to reach for positive values – that also help you “do good” in your organization, community and world. 

Ethical Leadership Fuels Adaptability

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

The post “Leader Competence: Will It Be A Multiplier or Divider?” generated some great discussion on social media. Here’s a quote from the post: “Leader competence is either going to be a multiplier or a divider. When you have it, you multiply performance and trust, with exponential results. Without it, you divide your possible results by the incompetence factor.”

After reading the post, one reader requested that I write more on the topic. This week I’m digging deeper into the multiplying and dividing effects of leader (in)competence, looking at how a leader’s ethical competence impacts trust, people, bottom line results and organizational adaptability:

The Danger of Us Versus Them

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By Linda Fisher Thornton

Any time you draw a line that excludes, you’re leaving ethical territory. That’s a bold statement, but when someone draws a dividing line that intentionally excludes people or groups, it can lead to an “us versus them” mentality. And from there, it’s a short slippery slope to this and more…