Ethical Sluts

Ethical leadership boils down to acting in a manner that earns trust from your team, empowers employees to do their best work, and builds an environment that values fairness, encouragement and support. At its foundation ethical leadership is built upon ethical behavior- knowing and doing what’s right. Ethical leaders engage a code of conduct that helps them to discern the different shades of grey in the ethical continuum. When leaders experience ethical failure it’s usually the result of one or more of the following- ignoring boundaries, failure to use self control, holding an entitled view, living with warped personal values, operating in a system with no accountability structure, living with no behavioral standards, or navigating life without a moral compass.

The key to an ethically run organization is a morally upstanding leader. It’s the leader’s morality that forms the basis for the ethical system in which the organization lives. As leaders we must take hold to the fact that ethical leadership is both visible and invisible. It’s visible in the way the leader works with and treats others publicly via statements & actions. The invisible aspects lie in the character, decision making process, mindset, values & principles that drive the visible.

Often though it’s at this intersection of the visible and the invisible where we see the emergence of the ethical slut in leaders. How do we see this? Well, ethical leaders are ethical all the time- not just when someone else is looking, and they’re ethical over time- proving that ethics are an integral part of the leader’s intellectual & philosophical framework.

• Ethical leaders don’t publicly proclaim to stakeholders that the organizations books & financials are in order while privately working in cahoots with the auditors to manipulate numbers, cook the books, and camouflage an upside down business model.

• Ethical leaders don’t raise capital earmarked for one purpose, only to funnel those fund towards his/her pet projects and side business ventures. That’s called embezzlement, fraud, and theft by deception.

• Ethical leaders don’t frame themselves as humble servants publicly, yet privately you find a trail of tears from all of the people they’ve destroyed emotionally, financially, or even spiritually.

• Ethical leaders don’t wag the judgmental finger at team members when their sins come to light knowing full well that they are just as guilty of the same offense or worse.

That’s being an ethical slut! When you sleep with/live with one set of ethics, standards, values, or morals when it’s convenient and beneficial for you then switch to another set when they are more conducive to your situation you’re functioning as an ethical slut.

If you’re going to be an ethical leader and not an ethical slut you must act and make ethical decisions consistently. You must lead ethically in the way you treat people in everyday interactions, in your attitude, in your encouragement, and in the direction in which you steer the organization.

Why is it important that you shift from being an ethical slut to an ethical leader? Because functioning as an ethical leader builds trust among the team and within the organization, brings credibility and respect to you as the leader as well as the organization, fosters a collaborative spirit within the organization, affords self respect to the leader, and finally allows you to occupy the moral high ground as the leader.