August 2000

 

Ethical Leadership
Cynthia Crawford, crawfordc@missouri.edu

Peace	Joy	Integrity	Wealth	Justice	Family
Wisdom	Love	Recognition	Influence	Power	Friendship
Status	Success	Authenticity	Happiness	Fame	Truth

Dr. Bill Grace from the Center for Ethical Leadership, Seattle Washington, was in Saline County this past spring. He led a workshop in Arrow Rock for a leadership alumni group. He challenged us to think about our values.

Step 1: Grab a pen or pencil and then take a look at the list of values above. If there are important values to you that are not listed, please add them to the list.

Step 2: Reduce your list to ten by lining through values that are not on your top 10 list. Please note that you are not asked to give up values, but rather to make choices regarding the relative importance of these values.

Step 3: Reduce your list to five.

Step 4: Reduce your list to three.

Step 5: Reduce your list to two.

"My name is Cynthia and my core values are joy and wisdom." It felt really great to stand for something in a world that often has too many shades of gray and is too "wishy-washy." What are your core values?

Bill Grace offered many thoughts that continue to resonate in my mind.

• Leadership is not a thermometer – reporting what it is today. It is a thermostat. Leaders don’t just report the temperature, they adjust it. It’s about turning the thermostat up and down. Leadership is truth telling.
• Ethics is all about behavior. "If you want to know about my ethics watch my feet and take a look at my checkbook," Bill said. Each of us reflects our ethics in our schedules and checkbooks – it is reflected not in what we say but how we use our time and money.
• This is a time in which a genius would have hoped to have lived!
• Look today in the eye and find hope. Pick your battles carefully – you can fall behind with all your opportunities. Know your life’s purpose and that you are gifted and make a difference. Be joyful.
• Create a gracious space where strangers feel welcome. Know, though, that the last person you want to see will show up. When that person leaves there will be a replacement. If the space is gracious, they will tell us something we need to know.
• Ethical leadership is not about perfection. It is about persistence.
• Ask yourself constantly, "What is the right thing to do."
• We each need the capacity to be content in an empty room.
• Bill points out, "I’ve never met anyone greater than me or lesser than me. We’re all made of the same stuff."

 

Return to 2000 archive index page