Ethical Leadership-Being the Leader You Wish You Had

It is difficult enough to get a group of individuals to reach a consensus when all members of the group have similar social and economic backgrounds. When members of the group come from different cultures, their views on important matters, such as what constitutes ethical or unethical behavior, vary significantly. It is not unusual in such circumstances for leaders to decide on what is the "right" way of doing things. Results improve, however, when diverse views are taken into consideration. Ethical leadership requires considering and integrating different points of view into decisions that affect members of a group, such as a committee or a team of workers, working toward a common goal. Leaders cannot impose their views on others and an attempt to do so is often counterproductive. Leaders will be more successful in achieving engagement objectives with an understanding of how ethical decisions are made, what prompts the choosing of one alternative over another, and under what conditions a positive response will be changed to the negative or vice versa. This program describes what ethical leadership is and how to become one. The three key components are: 1) Understand various views on what it means to be ethical, including how you, and those around you, make ethical decisions 2) Recognize the factors and behaviors that contribute to effective leadership 3) Use the knowledge to develop policies for hiring, assigning work, and evaluating performance to stimulate optimum results We will use various examples to illustrate how ethical decisions are made, how different individuals interpret situations, and what drives individuals to choose one alternative over another. This class will explain how the workplace environment can be structured to encourage a greater understanding and reconciliation of different viewpoints and will provide guidance to enable leaders to get the maximum benefit from members of a group working toward a common objective.