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Learning How to be More Aware

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The more that you, as a leader, manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence. So, let's look at each element in more detail and examine how you can grow as a leader.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

1. Self-awareness

If you're self-aware, you always know how you feel, and you know how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you. Being self-aware when you're in a leadership position also means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and it means behaving with humility.

So, what can you do to improve your self-awareness?

Keep a journal. Journals help you improve your self-awareness. If you spend just a few minutes each day writing down your thoughts, this can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness.

2. Self-regulation

Leaders who regulate themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people, or compromise their values. Self-regulation is all about staying in control.

This element of emotional intelligence, according to Goleman, also covers a leader's flexibility and commitment to personal accountability.

So, how can you improve your ability to self-regulate?

Hold yourself accountable. If you tend to blame others when something goes wrong, stop. Make a commitment to admit to your mistakes and to face the consequences, whatever they are. You'll probably sleep better at night, and you'll quickly earn the respect of those around you.

Practice being calm. The next time you're in a challenging situation, be very aware of how you act. Do you relieve your stress by shouting at someone else? Practice deep-breathing exercises to calm yourself. Also, try to write down all of the negative things you want to say, and then rip it up and throw it away. Expressing these emotions on paper (and not showing them to anyone!) is better than speaking them aloud to your team. What's more, this helps you challenge your reactions to ensure that they're fair!

3. Motivation

Self-motivated leaders work consistently toward their goals, and they have extremely high standards for the quality of their work.

How can you improve your motivation?

Re-examine why you're doing your job. It's easy to forget what you really love about your career. So, take some time to remember why you wanted this job. If you're unhappy in your role and you're struggling to remember why you wanted it, try the Five Whys technique to find the root of the problem. Starting at the root often helps you look at your situation in a new way. And make sure that your goal statements are fresh and energizing. For more on this, see our article on Goal Setting.

4. Empathy

For leaders, having empathy is critical to managing a successful team or organization. Leaders with empathy have the ability to put themselves in someone else's situation. They help develop the people on their team, challenge others who are acting unfairly, give constructive feedback, and listen to those who need it.

If you want to earn the respect and loyalty of your team, then show them you care by being empathic.

How can you improve your empathy?

Respond to feelings. You ask your assistant to work late - again. And although he agrees, you can hear the disappointment in his voice. So, respond by addressing his feelings. Tell him you appreciate how willing he is to work extra hours, and that you're just as frustrated about working late. If possible, figure out a way for future late nights to be less of an issue (for example, give him Monday mornings off).

5. Social Skills

Leaders who do well in the social skills element of emotional intelligence are great communicators. They're just as open to hearing bad news as good news, and they're experts at getting their team to support them and be excited about a new mission or project.

Leaders who have good social skills are also good at managing change and resolving conflicts diplomatically. They're rarely satisfied with leaving things as they are, but they don't sit back and make everyone else do the work: they set an example with their own behavior.

So, how can you build social skills?

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Emotional Intelligence in Leadership - Learning How to Be More Aware

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Relating to others is vital in today's workplace. Learn how to build your emotional intelligence (EI) with this article.

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5 Aspects of Emotional Intelligence Required for Effective Leadership

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5 Aspects of Emotional Intelligence Required for Effective Leadership

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School counselors are uniquely equipped to bridge the gaps between administration, teachers, parents, and students. As the demands placed on everyone in a school community increase, it's vital that we view and include school counselors as part of our leadership teams. Let's make sure we recognize all they do and put their strengths to work for our students! Here are 11 ways school counselors serve as leaders in your building.

1. School counselors recognize and showcase diversity.

In many buildings, school counselors are considered the "heart" of the school. They help create an inclusive environment that is respectful, welcoming, kind, and open to all.

2. School counselors develop community partnerships.

Counseling staff work collaboratively with universities, community colleges, technical schools, local unions, military reps, and apprentice programs to provide a variety of opportunities for students. They are especially vital in ensuring underserved and first-generation students have access to and the tools to reach all possible post-high school options.

3. School counselors help during difficult situations.

Strengths such as listening, reflecting, and high emotional intelligence make school counselors valuable allies when trying to get buy-in from staff or the greater community on difficult issues. Counselors foster a culture of change via strong lines of communication and valuing input from all parties involved.

4. School counselors maintain strong home-school connections.

Counselors tend to be the liaison for parents when it comes to communicating with the school. This leadership role is especially important when assisting families who are not familiar with the school setting or have issues trusting staff.

5. School counselors maximize educational success.

School counselors can help to maximize the educational attainment of all students by providing students with mental health services (school or community-based) and developmental guidance that takes a proactive approach in helping students set and reach academic goals.

6. School counselors lead staff trainings.

Administrators who use their counseling staff (rather than outside contractors) to lead building-wide trainings can save a lot of money and gain quicker buy-in from staff. School counselors are experts on topics such as student engagement, positive discipline, suicide/self-harm, students-as-leaders, peer mentoring programs, and academic/social interventions for low-performing students.

7. School counselors protect and advocate for disadvantaged students.

Counselors identify and amend policies and practices that negatively impact disadvantaged students and advocate for equitable services for all students.

8. School counselors use expertise to bring data to life.

Like administrators, counselors are trained in data collection and analysis. They are skilled at using this information to drive decisions about placement, intervention, and overall student health and wellbeing.

9. School counselors mediate difficult situations between parents/students and staff.

Counselors are consistently looking for ways to support the relationship between school staff and parents. Acting as a mediator when one or both parties are upset about a situation is a critical way in which school counselors serve as leaders.

10. School counselors organize and lead crisis response.

Counselors are on the front lines after a tragedy has happened in a school or community. Staff, students, parents, and community members look to the counselors for guidance and support immediately following an event. Because of their training in emotional/mental, the counseling staff is critical in advocating for and teaching self-care to staff, parents, and students during a crisis.

11. School counselors empower and inspire.

School counselors inherently believe in people and work tirelessly to communicate that. By being visible and accessible at all times, their calming, caring, and encouraging presence helps support and empower staff in the building.

School counselors serve as leaders in many ways and we need to value their perspectives and strengths. They are vital to building positive learning environments in which students thrive.
Join our Facebook group Principal Life for more conversation about and insights into the challenges of school leadership.

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11 Ways Your School Counselors Serve as Leaders - WeAreTeachers

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School counselors are uniquely equipped to bridge the gaps between administration, teachers, parents, and students. As the demands placed on everyone in a school community increase, it's vital that we view and include school counselors as part of our leadership teams. Let's make sure we recognize all they do and put their strengths to work for our students!

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Everybody defines leadership differently but I really like the way John C Maxwell defines leadership, " A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." Irrespective of how you define a leader, he or she can prove to be a difference maker between success and failure. A good leader has a futuristic vision and knows how to turn his ideas into real-world success stories. In this article, we take an in-depth look at some of the important leadership qualities that separate good leaders from a bad one.

15 Leadership Qualities That Make Good Leaders

Want to become a great leader? Here are fifteen leadership qualities that can make you a good leader.

1. Honesty and Integrity

The 34th President of United States, Dwight.D.Eisenhower once said, " The supreme quality of leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office." Honesty and integrity are two important ingredients which make a good leader. How can you expect your followers to be honest when you lack these qualities yourself? Leaders succeed when they stick to their values and core beliefs and without ethics, this will not be possible.

2. Confidence

To be an effective leader, you should be confident enough to ensure that other follow your commands. If you are unsure about your own decisions and qualities, then your subordinates will never follow you. As a leader, you have to be oozing with confidence, show some swagger and assertiveness to gain the respect of your subordinates. This does not mean that you should be overconfident, but you should at least reflect the degree of confidence required to ensure that your followers trust you as a leader.

3. Inspire Others

Probably the most difficult job for a leader is to persuade others to follow. It can only be possible if you inspire your followers by setting a good example. When the going gets tough, they look up to you and see how you react to the situation. If you handle it well, they will follow you. As a leader, should think positive and this positive approach should be visible through your actions. Stay calm under pressure and keep the motivation level up. As John Quincy Adams puts it, " If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." If you are successful in inspiring your subordinates, you can easily overcome any current and future challenge easily.

4. Commitment and Passion

Your teams look up to you and if you want them to give them their all, you will have to be passionate about it too. When your teammates see you getting your hands dirty, they will also give their best shot. It will also help you to gain the respect of your subordinates and infuse new energy in your team members, which helps them to perform better. If they feel that you are not fully committed or lacks passion, then it would be an uphill task for the leader to motivate your followers to achieve the goal.

5. Good Communicator

Until you clearly communicate your vision to your team and tell them the strategy to achieve the goal, it will be very difficult for you to get the results you want. Simply put, if you are unable to communicate your message effectively to your team, you can never be a good leader. A good communicator can be a good leader. Words have the power to motivate people and make them do the unthinkable. If you use them effectively, you can also achieve better results.

6. Decision-Making Capabilities

Apart from having a futuristic vision, a leader should have the ability to take the right decision at the right time. Decisions taken by leaders have a profound impact on masses. A leader should think long and hard before taking a decision but once the decision is taken, stand by it. Although, most leaders take decisions on their own, but it is highly recommended that you consult key stakeholders before taking a decision. After all, they are the ones who will benefit or suffer from your decisions.

7. Accountability

When it comes to accountability, you need to follow the approach highlighted by Arnold H Glasow when he said, " A good leader takes little more than his share of the blame and little less than his share of the credit." Make sure that every one of your subordinates is accountable for what they are doing. If they do well, give them a pat on the back but if they struggle, make them realize their mistakes and work together to improve. Holding them accountable for their actions will create a sense of responsibility among your subordinates and they will go about the business more seriously.

8. Delegation and Empowerment

You cannot do everything, right. It is important for a leader to focus on key responsibilities while leaving the rest to others. By that, I mean empowering your followers and delegating tasks to them. If you continue to micromanage your subordinates, it will develop a lack of trust and more importantly, you will not be able to focus on important matters, as you should be. Delegate tasks to your subordinates and see how they perform. Provide them with all the resources and support they need to achieve the objective and give them a chance to bear the responsibility.

9. Creativity and Innovation

What separates a leader from a follower? Steve Jobs, the greatest visionary of our time answers this question this way, " Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." In order to get ahead in today's fast-paced world, a leader must be creative and innovative at the same time. Creative thinking and constant innovation is what makes you and your team stand out from the crowd. Think out of the box to come up with unique ideas and turn those ideas and goals into reality.

10. Empathy

Last but certainly not the least, is empathy. Leaders should develop empathy with their followers. Unfortunately, most leaders follow a dictatorial style and neglect empathy altogether. Due to this, they fail to make a closer connection with their followers. Understanding the problems of your followers and feeling their pain is the first step to become an effective leader. Even that is not enough until you work hard and provide your followers with the suitable solution to their problems.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. You might have heard this adage many times, but did you know that great leaders also follow this rule. They are resilient and have a positive attitude. Irrespective of how difficult the circumstances might be, you will find them rallying their followers. While most people are busy in complaining about the problems, great leaders always focus on solutions, not the problems.

Good leaders always have higher influence but how do they increase their influence on the point where people accept what they say. They do this by connecting with people emotionally. That is where emotional intelligence comes into play.

Here are some of the reasons why a leader should be emotionally intelligent.

Manage emotions effectively

Better social awareness

Seamless communications

Conflict Resolution

With emotional intelligence, leaders can control their emotions, which prevents negative emotions from influencing their decision-making skills. As a result, they are less likely to make hasty decisions. Moreover, emotionally intelligent leaders are great at understanding the emotions and care about the feelings of others. That is not all, leaders who have this leadership quality not only handles conflict in a better way but also play an important role in conflict resolution.

" Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real."-Thomas Merton

How would you feel when you are promoted to leadership status? You will feel proud. A good leader is always selfless and always think about his or her followers. That is why the leadership styles most great leaders adopt put lots of emphasis on problem-solving and team dynamics instead of focusing on self-promotion.

One of the best ways to win the trust of your followers is by being transparent. Instead of hiding information, you should openly share it with them. By giving visibility to your followers, they will buy into your vision and support you with conviction in achieving the goal. More importantly, it gives your followers clarity, autonomy and make them feel more empowered while keeping them engaged.

" Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. "-Jack Welch

Good leaders always have a vision and purpose. They not only visualize the future themselves but also share their vision with their followers. When their followers were able to see the big picture, they can see where they are heading. A great leader goes above and beyond and explain why they are moving in the direction they are moving and shares the strategy and action plan to achieve that goal.

Conclusion

To join the elite club of good leaders, you must have all these qualities but if you lack some of these qualities, then you might struggle to make the mark in the world of leadership. You will have to set a good example for others to follow. That is where your commitment, passion, empathy, honesty and integrity come into play. Good communication skills and decision-making capabilities also play a vital role in success and failure of a leader. Lastly, innovation and creative thinking, as well as the futuristic vision, are a couple of leadership qualities that make up good leaders.

Sarmad is a Digital Content Producer at TaskQue. He is passionate about writing and loves writing blogs and reading magazines. In his leisure time, he likes to watch the news and current affairs program.

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Top 15 Leadership Qualities That Make Good Leaders

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Want to know what characteristics are important to make great leaders. In this article, we discuss 15 characteristics of a good leaders.

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11 Leadership Qualities: A List of Skills to Make a Good Leader

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Are great leaders born with it or can they be trained? Here's a list of the top 11 skills needed for exceptional leadership this year.

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Most of the violent attacks in schools over the past decade were committed by students who telegraphed their intentions beforehand-and could have been prevented, a new report from the U.S. Secret Service concludes.

Most of those students were motivated by a specific grievance, and every single one was experiencing extreme stress. But there remains significant variation among the perpetrators, and schools should use a comprehensive analysis to detect true threats rather than trying to profile students, the report says.

The report, released Nov. 7 by the Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center, analyzes 41 violent incidents in schools between 2008 and 2017. The devastating school shootings in 2018 in Parkland, Fla., and Santa Fe, Texas, helped prompt the study, but were not included in the report.

The analysis generally confirms the conclusions of the agency's influential 2002 publication on school safety, which said checklists of characteristics supposedly common to school shooters were not helpful in preventing violence.

Instead, that earlier study popularized the idea of threat assessment, in which teams of educators, administrators, counselors, and school resource officers compile academic, behavioral, and other evidence to decide whether a student who's made a threat is acting out or actually poses one.

"The implications for schools seems to be the same," including using those teams to triage threats, said Anthony Petrosino, a school safety expert and director of the WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center. Schools should also consider broader strategies such as trying to connect every youth to at least one caring adult in the school, he added.

Still, some areas of emphasis in the report differ from the past-most notably its attention to the attackers' social and emotional health.

The analysis comes as school safety remains a top issue for school districts-and a contested one. Many districts have struggled with two, often competing philosophies: one, to "harden" schools through physical measures and school police, which nearly half of all schools now employ; or two, to invest in efforts to improve school climate, such as through restorative justice programs favored by civil rights groups who note that discipline policies and the presence of school police too often lead to the disproportionate punishment of black students and students with disabilities.

On that tension, the report effectively punts: "Schools should implement a threat assessment process in conjunction with the most appropriate physical security measures as determined by the school and its communities," it states.

Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina was killed in the Parkland shooting, said he hoped the report could help bridge those debates.

It's not about figuring out, 'Boy this student is a threat, let's get law enforcement involved,' he said. "That's the perception a lot of educators have and it couldn't be farther from the truth."

Social and Mental Factors

Here are some of the report's key findings:

Secondary schools were the most frequently targeted. Just 2 percent of the incidents occurred at elementary schools, while 75 percent occurred at high schools.

Attackers were usually white and they were overwhelmingly male. Mirroring the characteristics of U.S. mass shootings in general, 83 percent of the school attacks were carried out by males and 62 percent of the attackers were white.

Police presence varied. Nearly half of the schools with incidents employed at least one full-time school resource officer.

Guns were the most often used weapon. In what's sure to add fuel to the gun-violence debate, of the 25 attacks involving firearms, 19 of the attackers obtained firearms from the home of a parent or relative. Nearly all the other attackers used knives.

Most attackers had a grievance. At 83 percent, grievances were the perpetrators' most common motivation, usually against peers. Forty one percent were suicidal, and 37 percent had a desire to kill. (Attackers had multiple motivations.)

Many attackers had a plan. Half the attackers engaged in observable planning of their attacks, like researching weapons, documenting their plans, trying to recruit others, or packing a bag with weapons.

An eye-opening section of the report likely to kick up debate also details the combination of social, emotional, and behavioral factors that may have been linked to the attacks.

At least 40 percent of perpetrators had a mental-health diagnosis; 54 percent had received some kind of mental-health treatment; 80 percent had been bullied; and all but two came from homes with adverse childhood experiences, such as an incarcerated parent, abuse, or financial difficulty.

And every single attacker had faced high levels of stress from social, family, or academic problems. Almost three-quarters also had been disciplined at school within five years of the attack.

Those issues will resonate in the wake of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Some families of the slain students there have blamed the tragedy in part on the district's alleged failure to act on a record of the shooter's mental-health problems, and its decision to put him in a program meant as an alternative to suspension and expulsion.

No Guarantee

The report also noted that four attackers had been referred to their school's threat-assessment team, three of them within a year of the incident. In some cases, the team didn't review all the available data, and in one case, a team considered a student low risk despite several troubling pieces of data.

That's a good reminder that risk-mitigation approaches shown to be effective, like threat assessment, aren't foolproof, and they depend on good implementation to work.

Petty said threat assessments teams need to be meeting regularly. That way they can be comfortable with each other, with the threat assessment process, and be willing to share pieces of relevant information when a threat occurs.

"My guess is where these are failing, you'll find threat teams that are meeting only when there's an identified threat. Where they're working, they're meeting on a regular basis," he said.

Many states have considered or passed legislation requiring schools to conduct threat assessments since the Parkland incident, though there is considerable variation in their policies.

Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, and Texas required all schools to begin it in the 2019-20 school year. Washington state schools will join them in 2020-21.

Published in Print: November 13, 2019, as Most School Shooters Gave Many Warning Signs, Report Says

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Most School Shooters Showed Many Warning Signs, Secret Service Report Finds

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Most of the violent attacks in schools over the past decade were committed by students who telegraphed their intentions beforehand-and could have been prevented, a new report from the U.S. Secret Service concludes. Most of those students were motivated by a specific grievance, and every single one was experiencing extreme stress.

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To foster a schoolwide culture of coaching, create a shared language around specific teaching skills and a norm of constant practice of those skills.

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This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds. Forbes Finds covers products we think you'll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale. Learning to Lead: The Journey to Leading Yourself, Leading Others, and Leading an Organization by Ron Williams with Karl Weber Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 and Leadershift, both by John C. Maxwell
Leadership is the most evergreen of business topics, yet it remains fiendishly difficult to master. Year after year, an array of authors do their part to keep the subject fresh, bring their varied perspectives to the task. Their treatments range from the musings of theorists, to painstakingly researched volumes from students of Churchill and Lincoln, to memoirs from captains of industry who recount their own journeys and the lessons learned along the way.
Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust by Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein Disrupt-It-Yourself: Eight Ways to Hack a Better Business-Before the Competition Does by Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise by Horst Schulze with Dean Merrill Simone Bhan Ahuja
My eight selections below include some of the latest leadership bestsellers as well as volumes that have stood the test of time; between them, they represent a broad look at how to thrive as a leader of a company, a division, or a team.

Ron Williams grew up as a child in segregated Chicago and went on to become a top health care executive, including serving as the CEO of Aetna.Williams points out from the outset that Learning to Lead isn't written for fellow executives wanting to climb even higher; it's for readers starting their careers who are struggling to get on the right path to leadership. The lessons shared by Williams range from broad and philosophical ("Don't let other people define who you are, what you can become, or what you can accomplish") to specific and practical ("Seek out jobs in sectors that are growing"); he illustrates this latter message with a look at his own ride in healthcare, a field that nearly doubled as a share of the economy during his tenure.

A pioneer in the field of leadership, Maxwell has published one new and one newish book on leadership this year: an all-new volume, Leadershift and a largely rewritten "2.0" version of his classic, Developing the Leader Within You. Maxwell's completely new book, Leadershift, concerns itself with how leaders can prepare themselves to implement what he calls "leadershifts," with Maxwell defining a leadershift as a "leadership change that will positively enhance educational and personal growth," which he illustrates via the example of the 11 shifts that Maxwell himself made in the course of his career.

Maxwell's other release this year, Developing the Leader Within You 2.0, is an update of his classic book from 1992, a title which has sold some two million copies and has had a major influence in the field.The new edition brings the book's language and examples up to date but retains the central principles of the original, such as the maxim that "leadership is influence" and Maxwell's five levels of leadership (from the lowest level, "People follow [you] because they have to" to the highest, "People follow [you] because of who you are and what you represent."

Edgar H. Schein has long been a foremost expert on company culture. In this new book, Humble Leadership, Schein pairs up with his son and consulting partner, Peter, to explore what the senior Schein has long proclaimed is the other side of the culture coin: leadership. Based on this premise, the Scheins counsel the reader to "reframe the personal challenge of improving your leadership skills into a collective challenge of helping to improve how your groups perform." They refer to this type of leadership as "Level 2" and see it as distinct from the traditional model of leadership, which they critique as being hierarchic and dependent on the heroic performance of the individual.

Fear of disruption runs rampant in boardrooms today. Innovation expert Ahuja proposes an antidote to this paralysis-inducing posture: innovate within your organization before the competition disrupts you out of business. She then lays out eight ways to do exactly this, presenting an unusually broad set of examples to make her point that this is the best way an organization can survive and thrive over time.

Horst Schulze is a noted hotelier whose approach to leadership has been widely influential. Much of his new volume focuses on empowering employees to provide leadership themselves. The former Ritz-Carlton president is a passionate proponent of some pro-employee ideas, including that employees deserve control over the design of their own work; that frontline associates often know, better than their managers, what needs to be done; and that an employee, if fully empowered, can provide customer service and hospitality at a very high level.

Note: I recently conducted an interview with Schulze in which he explores the content of his new book.

Michael Lewis' The Fifth Risk is one of the most important and timely nonfiction books published in the past year, and it has unique value when considered from a leadership perspective.It's a surprisingly hopeful treatise on how the dedication of long-tenured, middle-level employees in a large organization (in this case, the federal government) can manage to keep things going for their constituents/customers, in spite of absentee leadership-and how much better they could be doing with just a smidgeon of support from above. For any student of leadership or of organizational culture, The Fifth Risk affords an opportunity to see these issues explored in Lewis' masterful style.

A lovely and influential volume on leading through (rather than in opposition to) your troops, particularly in the creative world. The author is the former CEO of Herman Miller Inc., a longtime leader in the world of home and office furnishings, whose products include the Eames Lounge Chair, the Noguchi Table, and the ubiquitous Aeron Chair. Author DePree recounts the decisions that Miller made that have led to its sustained business success, including to hire creative geniuses (including industrial designers Charles and Ray Eames) and give them free rein. DePree convincingly makes the point that "the indispensable knack for building and nurturing relationships" is at the heart of what leadership requires.

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Best Leadership Books: 8 Essential Reads You Need In Your Library

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This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds . Forbes Finds covers products we think you'll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale.

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The 25 Best Leadership Books of All-Time | Soundview Magazine

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In case you don't know, Soundview identifies, selects, and summarizes the best business books that are published every year. And, since we've been doing this for the past 41 years, we've seen A LOT of leadership books filter through our offices. Literally thousands ...

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Image: Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito, via

Wikimedia Commons. Machiavelli told political leaders that it
was more important for them to be feared than loved. In lawless
times with weak institutions, he may have been right.
But in today's business world, for most industries, the evidence points
more the other way.

When it comes to ethics, we look to leaders to lead on ethics and take responsibility for both good and bad results. Philosophers have been discussing ethical leadership (as in what leaders should do) for quite some time but the topic is relatively new as an area of social scientific study.

Leaders who lead ethically are role models, communicating the importance of ethical standards, holding their employees accountable to those standards, and- crucially- designing environments in which others work and live. As described below, ethical leadership has been shown to cause a host of positive outcomes, and to reduce the risk of many negative outcomes. Leadership may therefore be the most important lever in an ethical system designed to support ethical conduct.
IDEAS TO APPLY (Based on research covered below)

Make ethics a clear priority. Being an ethical leader means going beyond being a good person. Ethical leaders make ethics a clear and consistent part of their agendas, set standards, model appropriate behavior, and hold everyone accountable.

Make ethical culture a part of every personnel-related function in your organization. Leaders must work hard through hiring, training, and performance management systems to bring in the right employees and then help employees internalize the organization's underlying values.

Encourage, measure, and reward ethical leadership at multiple levels. Ethical leadership from the top is very important- because it creates an environment in which lower-level ethical leaders can flourish- but ethical leadership at the supervisory level has a huge impact on followers' attitudes and behavior. In fact, mid-level managers often find promoting C&E a greater challenge than do senior executives. Mid-level managers should be encouraged to:

Regularly communicate about C&E issues to employees in their work unit;

Ensure that C&E "performance" is adequately reflected in employee evaluations and compensation decisions;

Be alert to exemplary ethical behavior in the work unit, and-as appropriate-praise that behavior to others in the unit.

AREAS OF RESEARCH

Do ethical leaders have special characteristics? Anyone can become an ethical leader, but researchers have found a few traits that are more commonly found in leaders who are rated by their followers as being ethical leaders. These traits include:

How do people become ethical leaders? We have some evidence that having had an ethical role model can contribute to being perceived by one's followers as an ethical leader ( Brown & Trevino, 2013). But we need a lot more research on this question. For example, can ethical leaders be trained/developed?

Does ethical leadership matter? In major ways. Followers who rate their leader as more ethical have more favorable job attitudes such as job satisfaction and commitment. They are also less likely to report intentions to leave the organization. This is because followers are attracted to ethical role models who care about them, treat them fairly, and set high ethical standards.

Ethical leadership is also associated with more helpful behavior from employees, perhaps because ethical leaders model helpful behavior ( Mayer et al., 2009; Walumbwa & Schaubroeck, 2009). Ethical leadership also reduces deviant or unethical behavior in followers ( Mayer et al., 2009; Mayer et al., 2012). Again, ethical leaders are role models, and followers learn how to behave by observing them ( Moore, et al. 2014). When unethical acts do occur in the social environment, employees who have an ethical leader are more likely to report the wrongdoing to management because ethical leaders create a psychologically safe environment and are trusted to handle reports fairly and with care ( Mayer et al., 2013).

In addition, a study summarized in Harvard Business Review reported that good leadership impacts the bottom line. Researchers found that CEOs whose employees gave them high marks for character had an average return on assets of 9.35% over a two-year period. That's nearly five times as much as what those with low character ratings had; their ROA averaged only 1.93%. More in Kiel, Return on Character, 2015.

Why does ethical leadership matter? How does it work? Research is investigating the processes that contribute to understanding how ethical leadership affects outcomes. The most important process appears to be modeling (from social learning theory) ( Bandura, 1986). If an ethical leader models ethical decisions and behaviors, followers can be expected to do the same.

Further, research has found that followers of ethical leaders tend to identify more with the organization, report higher self efficacy, and a stronger leader-follower relationship ( Walumbwa, Mayer, Wang, Wang, Workman & Christensen, 2011). Also, we have learned that ethical leaders create ethical cultures that influence followers to behave more ethically and to refrain from behaving unethically ( Schaubroeck et al., 2012). An essay in Fast Company by ES collaborator David Mayer outlines why it takes more than being a good person to inspire ethical conduct among employees.

What level of ethical leadership matters most: top management or lower-level supervisory leadership? There is some evidence that ethical leadership at the top "trickles down" and affects behavior at lower levels ( Mayer et al., 2009). But, in general, research suggests that the leader closest to an employee is the one with the most impact. This is reinforced when we consider immediate supervisors interact with and influence employees every day, while senior leaders are more distant in the hierarchy and, potentially, by location.

CASE STUDIES Failures

Enron's Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay (" The Smartest Guys in the Room") Notice how Jeff Skilling created an environment at Enron in which unethical behavior could flourish, based on his understanding of Darwinian evolution and the principle of "survival of the fittest." Leaders are responsible for creating the environment in which their employees work; in this case, the environment readily enabled unethical behavior.

Lance Armstrong, whose decision to dope was enabled by an infrastructure of colleagues within his organization and now serves as a reminder that cheating can be a "slippery slope." See a summary of the case study by Harvard Business School.

Successes

James Burke, CEO of Johnson & Johnson in the early 1980s when the company's McNeil Division was hit with a crisis: Tylenol in Chicago drugstores had been laced with cyanide and seven people died. Burke responded with a recall of 31 million bottles and set up a crisis hotline to answer consumers' questions. Burke said over and over again that the company's Credo, which put customers first (and profits last), helped to guide decision making throughout the firm during the crisis. As a result, Johnson & Johnson went onto develop the tamper resistant packaging that we have all come to expect, and successfully rebuilt the brand. See HBR's cases on James Burke's career and his handling of the crisis for more information.

Tony Hseih of Zappos.com, succeeded in creating an environment within Zappos that attempts to avoid many of the most common ethical failings. For instance, he creates a culture of equality by using the same cubicle as other employees. He recently reorganized the company's structure to avoid hierarchies: see this link for more. His guiding ethical principle is to "make employees happy, and good things will happen." Here is a link to a profile of Zappos on 20/20 and another link to a profile of Zappos from Nightline.

OPEN QUESTIONS

Is there a limit to how ethical most employees want their leaders to be? Recent research has found that employees behave in a more cooperative manner for moderately ethical leaders than highly ethical leaders ( Stouten et al., 2012).

Are men or women typically more ethical when in leadership positions? Are men or women judged more punitively for ethical lapses? Does it depend on the nature of the transgression?

Are the criteria for being an ethical leader different in distinct cultures (countries)? Do employees and society more broadly respond differently to ethical lapses (or ethical greatness) from leaders in different cultures?

To what extent do leaders think of ethics as part of their responsibility at work? Do they tend to think ethics and values should be relegated to family and religious domains? What is the influence of a leader's orientation about ethics at work on their own behavior and the behavior of their employees?

TO LEARN MORE

Moore, C., Mayer, D., Chiang, Flora F. T., Crossley, C., Karlesky, M. & Birtch, T (2014). Leaders Matter Morally: The Role of Ethical Leadership in Shaping Employee Moral Cognition and Misconduct.

Articles - Practitioner Books - Practitioner

Treviño, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2011). Managing Business Ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (5th Ed.). Wiley, John & Sons, Inc. ( public library) ( Ethical Systems summary of 5th edition)

Videos

In a radio interview, Nick Epley talks about understanding the human mind, particularly the minds of others, which is no doubt vital in leading others:

Adam Grant on one way leaders can foster ethical conduct:

Barry Schwartz gives his advice on how leaders can better cultivate an ethical climate in their organization:

Simon Sinek discusses how leaders can harness human biology to benefit their organizations and themselves:

Watch more from experts studying and practicing ethical leadership in business & the US military, and much more on our Leadership playlist at the Ethical Systems YouTube channel.

This page is overseen by resident experts Linda Treviño, David Mayer, and Nick Epley, although other contributors may have added content.
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Miscellaneous Links & References

CEOs with military experience are less likely to be involved in fraudulent activity, and less likely to engage in excessive risk taking. ( Benmelech & Frydman, 2014)

Ratings of a leader's "empathy" are the strongest predictor of employee ratings of the leader's ethics. at FinancialPost.com. [posted by jon haidt, 7/13]​

Treviño, L. K., Weaver, G. R., & Brown, M. E. (2008). It's lovely at the top: Hierarchical levels, identities, and perceptions of organizational ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 18, 233-253. [posted by Selin Kesebir] This article shows that senior managers have "rosier" perceptions of the organization's ethics than lower level employees. Compared to senior managers, lower level employees were less likely to perceive that the organization cared for and rewarded ethical behavior, were more likely to believe that formal ethics and compliance programs exist to protect top management from blame, and less likely to think that employees would report unethical conduct or seek ethical guidance.

John Antonakis and colleagues on power, corruption and testosterone.

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Image: Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito, via Wikimedia Commons. Machiavelli told political leaders that it was more important for them to be feared than loved. In lawless times with weak institutions, he may have been right. But in today's business world, for most industries, the evidence points more the other way.

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Doing the Right Thing

We've seen some high profile ethical failures hit the headlines in recent times - the Volkswagen emissions scandal and the controversies surrounding rideshare giant Uber spring to mind.

These, and other, examples show what can happen when people at the top of an organization make poor ethical choices, and end up in the news or in the courts.

There are, however, many other leaders who "raise the bar," and inspire their teams to do the same.

Do you put ethics before the bottom line?

These ethical leaders do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons. They put their ethics before the bottom line - and research shows that this makes it more likely their teams will be loyal, dedicated and ethical, in return.

In this article, we'll explore how you, too, can raise the bar for yourself, your team, and your organization.

What Causes Ethical Failures?

Before looking at how to be an ethical leader, it is useful to consider what might lead you to an ethical failure.

Author and ethical leadership expert Linda Fisher Thornton points to a number of connected factors that can lead to ethical failures by individual leaders and by organizations.

Individual causes include ignoring boundaries such as organizational values or industry codes, following the crowd ("everyone else is doing it, so why not me?"), and lack of self-control.

Organizational causes include lack of positive role models, lack of codified standards of behavior and training, and lack of accountability.

How to Be an Ethical Leader

Now, let's walk through six steps you can take to define ethical standards, and to start putting those high standards into practice.

1. Define Your Organization's Values

Machinery manufacturer Deere & Co., for example, was recognized in 2018 as one of most ethical companies in the world. Why? Because it is committed to upholding the highest standards of honor and integrity, and because everyone from the C-suite to the shop floor does business in alignment with Deere's core values.

2. Know Your Personal Values

To see if that's the case for you, ask yourself these questions:

What standards of behavior are really important to my company?

What specific values do I admire in certain leaders? Do I identify with those values?

Would I still live by those values, even if they put me at a competitive disadvantage?

3. Set the Tone

When you're sure of your organizational and personal values, you can begin to create the right environment for your team and your organization.

If, for example, your company values honesty above all else, then be sure to demonstrate it by being transparent with everyone around you. And if your company values free speech, make a point of allowing your team members to openly communicate their ideas.

Next, be sure that your people know the consequences of behavior that doesn't live up to your corporate values, or which breaks the rules on ethical behavior. These consequences don't have to be punitive, but they should remind people of the standards of behavior that you expect of them.

Note:

Some behaviors are unethical but not illegal. Illegal behavior is never acceptable. If you are aware of, or suspect, illegal behavior, see our article, Whistleblowing.

4. Recognize Ethical Dilemmas

Imagine this scenario: you're in a meeting with other top executives, and one of your colleagues is grossly exaggerating his team's performance. Instead of saying that its project will increase company earnings by 4 percent, as he told you, he's promising a 12 percent increase.

What would you do? He's a close colleague and a personal friend, but, on the other hand, he's being dishonest. Should you support him, or tell the truth to the other executives?

We're often faced with tough choices in the workplace, but most ethical dilemmas aren't this obvious. So, how do you recognize them?

Identify "trigger" situations. Certain situations, such as purchasing, hiring, firing, promoting, and calculating bonuses, seem to attract ethical dilemmas, so be wary when you're involved.

And a threat to your image or income could skew your judgment. What if you make a mistake, for example - will you admit to it or try to cover it up?

By recognizing when ethical dilemmas are most likely to occur, you can be more attuned to the risk.

Listen to your "inner voice." Your conscience likely tells you when something isn't right, creating a feeling of uneasiness. If a situation makes you uncomfortable, or goes against one of your core values or beliefs, stop and think things through rationally before proceeding.

5. Deal With Ethical Dilemmas

Recognizing ethical dilemmas is one thing. But, often, deciding what to do about them is quite another. And even when you know what you ought to do, actually doing it can be very difficult.

There are several ways to respond to an ethical dilemma:

Prepare in advance. Visualizing theoretical scenarios can help you to work through your feelings and to decide what to do in reality. In a crisis, you may only have seconds to reach a decision, so rehearsing can be a great help.

What would you do, for example, if you knew that a colleague was about to be fired, but you weren't legally allowed to tell him? How would you choose to act?

You can also conduct this exercise with your team members, to help them to recognize and prepare for ethical dilemmas of their own.

Weigh up the evidence. In the example of your colleague presenting different information to executives than he gave to you, is there a chance that the figures changed legitimately?

Wherever possible, take the time to investigate and assess whether someone has behaved unethically, before taking action.

Reevaluate your decision before you act. If you're in a difficult situation and you're unsure what to do, try out making a decision. But, before you act on it, ask yourself how you would feel if your actions were made public. Would you be proud of what you did? If not, reconsider your decision.

Get advice. Getting input from others can help you to assess a situation more rationally, and lead to a better-quality decision. After all, even the most senior leaders take advice in difficult situations. Just be sure to avoid Groupthink.

6. Be Courageous

Sometimes, you'll act on a decision but wonder if you did the right thing. And even when you're certain that you were right, there can still be unpleasant consequences.

Consider, for example, the leader who informs an auditor about "irregular" accounting in her firm. She knows that she's been honest and correct, but the upsetting result may be that friends and colleagues lose their jobs.

So, you might be uncomfortable at times as an ethical leader, but these situations can teach you to trust yourself and your instincts. If you calm your anxiety and look logically at the situation, your instincts will often guide you in the right direction.

Key Points

Ethical living - and leading - takes courage and conviction. It means doing the right thing, even when it isn't popular or easy.

Start by identifying your company's core values as well as your own, then set the right tone with your team and your organization. By training yourself to spot ethical dilemmas, you can then decide how to deal with them by fully assessing the situation, and asking for advice where needed.

Your actions will always speak louder than your words, so set an example by following your convictions and you'll inspire those around you to do the same.

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Ethical Leadership: - Doing the Right Thing

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Doing the Right Thing We've seen some high profile ethical failures hit the headlines in recent times - the Volkswagen emissions scandal and the controversies surrounding rideshare giant Uber spring to mind. These, and other, examples show what can happen when people at the top of an organization make poor ethical choices, and end up in the news or in the courts.

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While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase "servant leadership" was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said:

"The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions...The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the "top of the pyramid," servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

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What is Servant Leadership? - Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership

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While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase "servant leadership" was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said: "The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.

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Tanveer Naseer | Leadership Speaker and Corporate Trainer

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Tanveer Naseer is an internationally-acclaimed leadership and TEDx speaker, award-winning leadership writer, recognized by Inc.as a Top Leadership Speaker.

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Leadership advice from America's most trusted leaders! America's #1 Source of Leadership Advice from Senior Military Leaders! The General Leadership Foundation fosters conversations to inspire positive leadership change. GeneralLeadership.com

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Leadership Freak - Empowering Leaders 300 Words at a Time