Monday, March 30, 2009

Ethics in Leadership

Today I start a new semester of class, ethics, to be specific. I've taken this course maybe 5 years ago but I think I'll be anything but bored. First I hear wonderful things about the instructor so I'm curious how he'll present the material. The other thing is it seems business and leaders have struggled with the topic of ethics. We have endless examples over the past decade where organizations and leaders have displayed poor judgement in ethical behavior, and I'm probably being kind in my description.

Whether you speak of WorldCom, Enron, KMart, the Bernie Madoff scandal, or the current AIG mess the topic of ethics comes crashing into our worlds. How many times have we heard of people losing their life's savings in the past decade? Too many times. Hopefully leaders and organizations start practicing with higher ethical standards.

My wife recently heard this saying that ethics can be defined as how people behave while others aren't watching. I don't know the original source of that saying but I like it! It is so true and I bet my semester is filled with examples of how leaders should act and how they haven't acted while other people weren't looking.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Chris -- let me know how the ads go! Good luck this semester.

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  2. I will let you know how it works. The challenge is in getting your blog discovered. It is a process but a fun one. I'm enjoying the blog. Class is great, and the teacher is excellent. Thanks for writing.

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