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 as compliance training or following legal requirements, although those are important too. This is the human development that takes place over time to bring leaders to the point where they can deal with what the world throws at them through ethical thinking and action. The way we develop leaders influences their growth and their willingness to make successful and ethical choices when faced with challenging situations.
“Moral reasoning level is positively related to ethical leadership (Brown & Trevino, 2006), demonstrating that developmental opportunities that increase moral reasoning skills improve ethical leadership capabilities.”
Shannon Brown, Ph.D. and Michael Chikeleze, Ph.D., A new conceptual model: Integrating ethical leadership into the Assess, Challenge and Support (ACS) model of leader developmentJournal of Leadership Education
To be most effective, the development of ethical leaders must include these high-level connected elements: ethical awareness, ethical (global) mindset, ethical thinking and decision making, ethical interpersonal behavior and applying ethics to everyday leadership choices. If leaders want to become ethical people and leaders, they need to understand all these important elements:
Ethical self
Ethical awareness
Global mentality
Ethical thinking and decision making
Ethics and others
Ethical interpersonal behavior
Ethical Leadership
Ethics, society and the planet
Building healthy communities
Respect and care for the planet
Ethical organization
Managing for ethical performance
Ethical culture building
Closing gaps in leadership development
Preparing leaders for all of these ethical leadership dimensions prevents many problems before they even arise. Closing existing gaps in leader development takes upfront effort, but the payoff is greater than just preventing ethical failure. Leaders also find meaning and fulfillment in their leadership role when they understand the bigger picture of its impact on the organization, its stakeholders and society.
Use these questions to determine your next steps as an organization:
- How broad is the scope of our current ethical leadership development?
- Which elements from the list above are currently missing or outdated?
- What should be our top priority for improving ethical leadership development over the next six months?
- How will taking this high-priority action benefit the organization?
- What are the first three things we need to do now to get started?
All these elements of ethical leadership development are discussed in 7 Lenses: Learning the Principles and Practices of Ethical Leadership. A free book Discussion Guide can be found here. Additional Resources: Ethical Culture Building.
Unleash the positive power of ethical leadership
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