Unleash the Positive Power of Ethical Leadership
A collection of published articles written by Linda Fisher Thornton or featuring her insights. 20 Best Ethical Leadership Blogs & Websites in 2025, FeedSpot (Leading in Context is in the Top 20) Ethics at Scale, Navigating AI Risk, Thought Leadership…
When we are faced with a business problem that involves ethics, the easy way out is to blame someone. That appears to remove the pressure of actually solving the problem. But organizational problems are complicated and rarely have one simple cause.
Leading ethically requires staying competent as a professional and as a leader. The speed of change in today’s global economy may cause leaders to fall behind even while they are diligently working to stay on top of trends and industry knowledge. These 5…
Boundaries can be simply described as lines that we don’t cross when doing business. Respecting these (sometimes clear, sometimes hazy) boundaries is an important part of today’s ethical leadership. The 5 phrases below signal that the speaker is ignoring an important ethical boundary:…
A pure profitability focus is based on an outdated cause-and-effect model, a belief that we can control our profit with our choices and that those choices are more important than our constituents and the impact of what we do on our economic system, our environment and our local and global communities.
Chemistry is not just confounding high school students these days. Corporate leaders are dealing with the complications of using chemicals in an age where responsible leadership practices are expected, and where businesses are held accountable for how they impact consumer health and the environment.…
Will you be ready to compete in the new arena? The consumer is choosing products differently, and even “doing without” more often. Businesses are racing to catch up with the new expanded expectations for responsible leadership in 2010 and beyond. CEOs…
According to scientists, continual multitasking doesn’t work. It rewires the brain to expect everything to be handled in short spans of time. It restricts the amount of focused brain energy that we can use to get our work done. You…
Here is a website (called appropriately EthicsCrisis.com) where readers can confess their ethical misdeeds and have them rated by level from 1 to 10. Guess what? The ethical misdeed “We totally fabricated our numbers” is only rated a 6 out…
The Business Ethics Report 2009, published by the Ethics Resource Center at Ethicspoint.com, shows that while business ethics improved during the recession, there is concern about sustaining that improvement when the economy improves. 2009 Business Ethics Study by the St. James Ethics…
In my consulting and teaching, I have observed the convergence of a number of diverse forces that create pressure on leaders. No, not the level of challenges that include tighter deadlines and leaner staffing. Bigger challenges, like how to think through a problem with a group,…
Being an ethical leader is the right thing to do. And it pays off. There is a paradox that makes this information difficult for some experienced leaders to act on. Some business leaders are so concerned with the bottom line and shareholder value that they…
Leading in Context 