Unleash the Positive Power of Ethical Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton
This week I’m sharing The Last 10 Years of Top Posts on the Leading in Context Blog. It’s a time capsule of the issues you thought were most important over the last 10 years. For each year, I have selected a theme that reflects the topics and focus of the reader’s most read posts.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Of the 52 weekly posts published on the Leading in Context Blog in 2022, these 10 were the most popular. See if you notice a theme that connects these new topics that readers accessed most frequently:
By Linda Fisher Thornton
We have a “spin” problem in the media and it’s out of control. Unfortunately, many media channels have decided that clicks, and the dollars they generate, are more important than journalistic integrity. So we end up with people getting what they think is “news” when what they are actually getting is from sources of “infotainment,” and using that bad information to make bad decisions and even in some cases commit crimes. Infotainment sources that incite anger, violence, and bad decisions do not care about you. They are using you as a pawn for their own financial gain.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
In Part 1 of this series on Recognizing Ethical Issues, I addressed the gaps in our thinking that require us to develop an ethical alert system. in Part 2, I explored why some leaders who want to do the right thing still don’t “do the work” to learn how to do it. In Part 3, I’ll dig into the importance of ethical awareness as the basis for ethical decision making.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Building on last week’s post about Seeing the Facets of Facts, this week I’m digging into the dangers of “Partialized Facts.” When I say “Partialized Facts” I refer to treating one perspective on an issue that is only part of the picture as the whole truth. I have seen it happen so many times. It’s time to call it what it is. Unethical.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
How likely are we to believe things that aren’t true? According to Lynne Malcolm in The psychology of conspiracy theories, “Psychological research suggests that we’re all conspiracy theorists, thanks in a large part to our cognitive makeup.”
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Have you noticed the steady increase in the complexity of navigating our daily lives? It feels like we have too many choices, too much information, and not enough time. More information and more choices would be great if we had the time to research and decide, but the reality is that it’s difficult and time consuming to sort out which information is reliable and which is not.
Seeing and appreciating other ways of doing things is not just a nice-to-have ability. In a connected global society, it’s an essential skill. To achieve mutual benefit and collaboration, we will need to see the world from other perspectives that differ from our own, respect those perspectives, and work together toward shared goals. Leaders who don’t know how and don’t make the effort to change can be thought of as intentionally “unseeing” important aspects of the context and their leadership responsibility.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
What is a Paradox?
“A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself, or that must be both true and untrue at the same time.” –Literaryterms.net. Just like the many facets of a cut gem, there are multiple dimensions to issues and problems. Each facet reflects one particular element of the issue. When we encounter a paradox, we need to step back to get a broader view of the various facets.
LeadinginContext.com
Resources By Topic
By Linda Fisher Thornton
This week I’m sharing posts that clearly describe what unethical leadership looks like, and caution readers about the risks of allowing it to continue. While I have always blogged about proactive ethical leadership, my posts on unethical leadership continue to be some of the most popular, so I know you’re looking for answers.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
What kind of leadership legacy will you leave? It’s a powerful question that we don’t often stop to think about. Here are some questions to reflect on to assess your legacy, as it stands now, and determine whether that’s the “message in a bottle” that you want to leave for future generations.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
How well is your organization navigating the ethical pitfalls of the working world? If you’re finding it to be a major challenge right now, you’re not alone.
Why is it so hard to navigate ethical minefields now? There is currently a “toxic soup” of factors at play…
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Sometimes leaders believe things that aren’t true because they haven’t taken time to investigate the truth. In other cases, they may have trusted someone who has misled them. But there’s an even more problematic reason some leaders may ignore the truth – claiming to believe the falsehood may benefit them in a tangible way.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
The Top Post Series for last year on the Leading in Context Blog reflected the ethical challenges of decision-making during COVID-19.
Truth and Misinformation: How To Spot False Narratives
This series addressed the fine points of how to tell the difference between a false narrative and a message that is true. Here’s a highlight quote from each post in the series that provides an overview.
By Linda Fisher Thornton
Part 1 in the Truth and Misinformation: How to Spot False Narratives series explored truth and narrative, and Part 2 examined how data and motives relate to the truth. Part 3 addressed the importance of media literacy. In Part 4, we take a deeper look at truth and belief.
Leading in Context 