Leadership Ethics
A Compilation of Bob Terry's
Writings on Ethics:
Ethics is essential, even intrinsic, to leadership. It is not enough to assert the importance of ethics and leave it at that. Bob Terry’s definition of leadership sets the stage for who may be considered a leader. We ought to be able to define leadership in a way that is “intellectually and morally defensible.” There is an ethical imperative in the inquiry itself.
What is especially crucial is that, if ethics is not perceived as essential in leadership, it will continue to be ignored or included in leadership programs solely for idiosyncratic reasons—the instructors interests, the culture’s latest fad, or the participants’ whims.
Only what is perceived to be essential in leadership is always included. Even when ethical leadership is included in a leadership program, all too often key ethical principles are not identified, evaluated, or placed in a useful relation to each other. Urging ethical behavior is not the same as thoughtful wrestling with ethical principles or problems. More is required of us as teachers than a peripheral nod to ethical thinking.
Contact us for special pricing on multiple downloads Can We Discern and/or Build A Universal Ethic in a Time of Radical Diversity? Vast cultural differences exist. Assertions of value supremacy never seem to go away. The challenges cover a wide array of issues that can overwhelm us. Race, gender, age, class, sexual orientation, disability, political governance, religion, families and many others define sharp boundaries. These boundaries trigger wars, conflicts, lawsuits and numerous other fights. It does not seem that human beings are on the same value page. Diversity exists with no unity. Confounding the puzzle are authorities and methods used to justify the principles. Often advocates make external authoritative claims. The Bible, Koran, US Constitution and other documents are repeatedly cited as the source of truth and principles. However, there are other routes. Deductive reason enters the ethical debate, grounded in philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and Emmanuel Kant. Faith seeking understanding opens another route. Theologians like Thomas Aquinas and the Niebuhr brothers are examples. Reason does not prove faith beliefs; reason tests the implications of faith and builds on a faith platform. And, there is another route—empirical research. Global surveys search for common ground based on interviews and other methods of data collection and assessment.
Here is the first puzzle. Given this vast spread of cultural differences and methods, is it possible to construct a universal ethic that is neither based on a single external authority, deductive reason, faith seeking understanding or empirical research nor reduced to cultural relativism where differences exist without any likelihood or possibility of unity? This is no easy puzzle. Is there an approach that can discern unity without denying diversity and employ a method different from the many traditional approaches that actually works? The second puzzle connects with the first, yet differs in implications. Lisa Beamer sought to discern a pattern in her tragedy. Some wonder how faith in God persists in times of overwhelming grief and pain. For Lisa, “Todd had a more important job to do on that plane than he had to do here—which, OK, I thought was pretty important—for the next fifty years…God ultimately has a plan. He takes us where we need to be.” As she reflected on the past and her father’s death she saw a pattern. “…much as I never would have wished it, it built character in me….I hope that in the future I can look back on how I am handling things for my boys now and say the same thing.” (Ibid p. 13D)
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