Why Are We Talking about Ethics?

June 2, 2022

https://triplecrownleadership.com/why-are-we-talking-about-ethics/Why Are We Talking about Ethics?

There I was, giving a guest lecture on leadership at a European business school, when I got an intriguing question from a student in the back of the room:

“Excuse me, why are we talking about ethics?
This is a course about leadership.“

I came to realize what a gift this question was. His question was so revealing about how we perceive business and leadership today. So revealing about the chasm between how people think about and practice leadership. And so revealing about things we can take for granted and miss if we’re not careful.

The question created a teachable moment — a space in which we could dive in and explore the crossover of concepts, the relationship between ethics and leadership.

My short-version answer to his question is that leadership and ethics are inseparable.

Leadership and ethics are inseparable.

We don’t have to fly to the astral realm of moral philosophers to see this. No, we can begin right where we are, in any organization, team, family, or endeavor. Soon enough in any group or activity, we’ll see that there will be ethical choices to make and dilemmas to face.

In all sorts of human endeavors we quickly run into issues of fairness, justice, truth, transparency, and trust. Deception and harm. Too often, we’re unprepared for these tough issues. We just wing it, often with poor results. Sometimes horrible ones.

Sometimes when we talk about ethics, we use terms like ethics, honesty, integrity, and values interchangeably or imprecisely, causing confusion. There are many ways to think about these terms, and they’re all related. Let’s unpack and clarify them

Ethics

Ethics is a set of principles of right conduct, helping us determine right from wrong. In our book, Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations, we defined ethics simply as “doing the right thing, even when it’s costly or hard.”

Note that we can have personal ethical views and standards that differ from those at different levels (family, group, organization, nation, religion, culture, society).

Integrity

Integrity means living in a state of moral uprightness, acting in accordance with strong moral principles. It’s also the state of being whole and undivided.

See my article on “The Importance of Integrity in Leadership.”

Character

People with character demonstrate moral excellence and firmness. They exhibit the good qualities of a person, usually including moral strength, honesty, and fairness.

Honesty

When we’re honest, we’re exhibiting truthfulness, including not only adherence to the facts but also freedom from deceit or fraud. People look for honesty in their leaders—and turn away when there are deceptions, evasions, and lies.

“In every survey we’ve conducted, honesty is selected more often than any other leadership characteristic. Overall, it emerges as the single most important factor in the leader constituent relationship…. First and foremost, people want a leader who is honest.”
-James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge

Credibility

Having credibility means being trusted and believed in. When we have credibility, we’re believed and people accept our claims as true, real, and honest.

See my article on “The Importance of Credibility in Leadership.”

Trust

Trust is the belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, and effective. As it turns out, trust is essential for any relationship, team, or organization to function well. When we have it, it helps on so many levels. When we don’t, it can be excruciating.

“Trust is the most significant predictor of individuals’ satisfaction within their organizations.”
-James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge

See my article on “The Importance of Trust in Leadership.“

Values

Our values are what we deem most important, worthy, or valuable (i.e., what we value most). They’re often thought of as principles or standards of behavior (e.g., how we will treat each other) based on judgment about what’s important. Ideally our values help us decide how to act in various situations.

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
-Roy Disney, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company

Personal Values Exercise

Complete this exercise to identify your personal values. It will help you develop self-awareness, including clarity about what’s most important to you in life and work, and serve as a safe harbor for you to return to when things are tough.

Ethics in Practice

All of these—ethics, integrity, character, honesty, credibility, and values—may sound straightforward, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to actualize. Far from it. Life and work often present us with tricky issues and ethical dilemmas, especially when we’re in a position of influence or authority.

“Most of us think that the important ethical decisions in our lives will be delivered with a blinking red neon sign:
CAUTION: IMPORTANT DECISION AHEAD … The problem is, life seldom works that way.”
-Clayton Christensen, professor and innovation consultant

We tend to overrate how ethical we are, according to researchers. And we tend to take ethics for granted and not steel ourselves for the tough choices we’ll face under pressure.

“…much of what goes wrong isn’t caused by bad people doing bad things;
it’s caused by good people doing bad things without knowing that they’re doing something bad.
We have many optimistic illusions about ourselves,
and we tend to behave unethically in ambiguous contexts.
So when ethical lapses occur, they rarely happen in situations
when what is right versus what is wrong is clear.
They more typically occur when what is morally right is less clear,
such as ‘doing what is right versus loyalty to the organization,’
or ‘doing what is right versus doing what I was told to do,’
or some other context that causes confusion.”
– Max Bazerman, professor, Harvard Business School

The Challenges of Ethical Leadership

We’re all flawed. We all make mistakes. Ethical leadership is challenging in part because of the way humans have evolved to seek safety and comfort in tribes and groups. Ethical leadership is hard because:

We can face pressure from peers or managers (or from ourselves) to take questionable or unethical actions.
We all have ethical blind spots.
We all struggle sometimes with actually doing what we know is right, because of the pressures and influences on us.
Values sometimes conflict (e.g., truth vs. loyalty, self-interest vs. group interests) so we need to make tough choices sometimes.
There are different ethical traditions and approaches (e.g., virtue ethics, utilitarian and consequentialist ethics, duty ethics, communitarian ethics), and this can be confusing.
We’re very good at rationalizing questionable and problematic ethical decisions and actions.

The Benefits of Ethical Leadership

Challenges aside, there are many powerful benefits that come from ethical leadership. It can help us:

make good choices that we’re proud of and that will stand the test of time
avoid trouble and reputational and relationship damage
build and maintain trust, which helps with everything else we do with others
develop and maintain good relationships and careers
lead a more fulfilling life that we’ll look back on with satisfaction

Conclusion

For leaders to be effective over the long haul, they must demonstrate a commitment to ethical conduct. They must act with integrity and build their character over time. Leaders must be honest and earn trust and credibility from their colleagues.

They can do this through values-based leadership and what we call “triple crown leadership“—a commitment to building an organization that’s excellent (achieves exceptional results and positive impacts for all stakeholders), ethical (does the right thing, even when it’s costly or hard), and enduring (stands the test of time and operates sustainably).

So, why are we talking about ethics? Because it’s essential to excellent and effective leadership—and to a good life.