Ron Merk
Author
A lot has been said over recent years about ethical leadership. Why is this?
Not so long ago, leadership/management meant that you told people “do what I tell you and don’t confuse me with any of your ideas.” In addition, leaders would leverage off of each other to position themselves for their own self interest or gain. In fact if you believe in the Jack Welch methodology of leadership, then organizational conflict is the best way to drive performance within your business. Survival of the fittest and destruction of the weak was the leadership message of the 80′s and 90′s.
Strangely enough, in a twisted way, the concept works for businesses in the short term. The reason is that you can save money and improve your bottom line and improve return to share holders by eating yourself or in other words down sizing via killing off those that are perceived as weak performers.
Do leaders who act similar as Jack Welch have integrity? Are they ethical and moral?
Unfortunately winning usually defines the final answer to these questions in the minds of most people. Short term management using the Dark Side of Leadership can deliver short term gains. The problem comes later after all the damage has been done to the individuals and teams in the organization impacted by this style of leadership. Once the foundation is gone, the business usually collapses into itself resulting in partial or complete destruction.
Truthfully the definition of ethics, integrity and morality is ambiguous. It can be said that a leader is being ethical, has integrity and is morale if they behave according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold. So, if your leadership is based on making decisions that are self-serving, confrontational, and manipulation AND you state your values as such, then you can be said to be adhering ethically etc to your leadership principals. Worse case scenario is when you profess you’re people centred, but you’re actually self-serving and manipulative. Welcome to the “Dark Side” of leadership.
Of course when we usually refer to ethical leadership or integrity, we really think we’re talking about all the positive aspects of humanity. Leadership that is serving, truthful, honest, people centred, team driven, customer focused to mention only a few.
Fortunately in the past few years, leaders have embraced a more enlightened concept of leadership which includes the concepts above and that people are the most important resource a business or organization has. Makes sense from a bottom line perspective too, when you consider the economic times and how hard it is to retain an edge with competitors.
What a radical idea! Think of it. Instead of feeding on each other, you could have a team that is fully concentrating on your competition. Makes a lot more sense to focus on those that are intent on taking your future for themselves rather than your internal organization. To use a parody, think of your business or organization as the Earth in “War of the Worlds”. It’s only when the Aliens come that the Earth units …well look around! If you don’t see the Aliens threatening your business or organization today, then you need to rethink if you’re really the leader for the job.
Stay tuned for a future article on “Enlightened Leadership”. Until then, nurture your team members and get them focused on beating your competitors.
