Ethical leadership is a critical component to the success of any organization. Companies and organizations ascend, transform, and fail based on the strategy and trajectory of a leader. In that respect, leadership is a quintessential aspect of a single individual’s development, but what is a leader, how do you lead, and what is a leadership philosophy. Many ask themselves these questions when considering taking on leadership roles or considering development opportunities. The title of leader is only half of the equation when it comes to answering these questions. The other half is the embodiment of success by having a steadfast vision and perspective on leadership. Bill Taylor said it best,
“The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you are not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special” (Taylor, 2010).
Taylor presents the argument that leaders and leadership are thinking outside the box and navigating the complexities and vagaries of what comes next. This leadership philosophy is built around — the embodiment of a core set of values, operational principles, expectations, and vision. An organization must understand the value of having a leader with a clear leadership philosophy to support driving success. We will explore an ideal organizational overview, organizational culture, and structure through the next several paragraphs, review ethical leadership styles, and evaluate their context to the developed personal leadership philosophy. The analysis to follow is not a comprehensive look at all leadership philosophies. However, an exploration in a personal one developed through personal experience and ethical leadership styles presented by authors such as Johnson, Greenleaf, and Josephson. While these are some of the authors that have influenced this philosophy, at its core, it is grounded in the various experiences and relationships that shape the context of leadership. Take the next several paragraphs to introduce what has been termed as “CREAM” leadership philosophy for influencing and transforming personal leadership.
Organizational Overview
The organization is a higher education located in an urban environment in a thriving city. The institution's primary mission is to grow and advance the intellectual acuity of the state's citizens to the highest level through research, teaching, and learning. The university’s goal is to strive to lead urban research by providing unparalleled student outcomes.
Leadership, staff, and faculty operate on an old hierarchal system based on appeasing an incumbent tenured faculty. In this community, each member contributes to the whole, providing insight, performance, and improvements continually. Leaders provide direction while also empowering front-line staff to enact changes that improve the day-to-day operations.
In the further understanding of the environment, we turn to Josephson’s principal characteristics. Josephson’s comments that such environments are based on a principle of loyalty and commitment where all employees and individuals benefit from shared experience and benefits (Josephson, 2018, p. 10). Josephson’s explanation of beneficial loyalty describes how this specific organization has created an environment where both leaders, staff, faculty, and students form a cohesive organization that moves toward a single goal of providing an unparalleled experience for students.
Employee loyalty, well-defined leadership, and engaged staff are components of an organization that a leader must understand to thrive. Organizational acumen, knowing systems, people, structures, and processes, and working together to make the organization function. Organizational acumen is critical for leadership in this environment to effectively provide the necessary outcome to become the leaders for urban research.
Organizational Culture
It is said that culture eats strategy; however, in truth, without a robust strategy, culture can deteriorate at an exponential rate. When first considering the culture and how it can affect an organization, we must first understand its purpose. Knowing the strategy is essential in determining if and how leadership is measuring performance and success. Organizational success factors that are clearly and consistently communicated are a thread that is shared throughout the leadership, strategy, and structure (Hartnell et al., 2019). It helps inform the culture and the types of individuals the organization will employ. Culture is one of the areas where there are several different perspectives on how culture can be influenced. Tan (2019) cites two approaches to organizational culture process and type, as previously described by Alvesson. Understanding the fundamental approaches provides a framework for how organizational will choose to construct the overall company structure.
Structure, much like strategy, is fundamental in contributing to the overall organizational success of a company. Once a clear strategy has been set, the strategy helps to facilitate how effective the organization is at fulfilling the objectives. The structure is comparatively one of the most functional aspects to examine, as this has a direct link to how we employ. People’s resources are vital to propelling an organization to deliver effective and increase value, ultimately resulting in success (Fraeed et Al., 2016). There are several different comparative and complementary structural models; clan adhocracy and market each provide benefits and risks in propelling an organization forward or creating sub-optimal subcultures and silos (Hartnell et Al., 2019). Knowing how these models can affect organizational culture is an aspect of how leadership should be engaged and maintain a centralized authority that can empower employees in an organization that increases value and effectiveness toward implementing thriving human capital.
Integrity and motivations are two critical factors that drive organizational culture. Over the course of navigating through this academic environment, it is vital that an understanding of the current ethical climate is understood. Johnson’s commentary on the different stylistic approaches provides a derivative framework for understanding how Companies developed the organizational culture. Unlike the policy and compliance-driven background that is more familiar, academia is driven by professional codes of conduct, law, and order structure (Johnson, 2018, 395). The Law and order of this organization are enforced through seniority, prestige, and held by the academic faculty. An environment sculpted by concepts and pedagogy has made it clear the need for a more implicit understanding of both approach and style. The organization further helps to elaborate why it is necessary to be human-centric in some of the reasoning in the leadership philosophy. There is an ethical climate of trust that permeates. Johnson describes such environments as “Fostering collaboration and communication; lowering costs; reducing turnover; encouraging organizational learning, innovation, and work effort and generating employee satisfaction and commitment” (Johnson, 2018, 407). In the below leadership philosophy, this ethical climate drives the focus on people and has a thorough understanding of the organization to drive toward being a premier urban research institution.
The focal organization is built on implementing a valued and productive human capital culture. The recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and development of individuals are a part of the leadership strategy. The ethics and compliance principles then support the mission, vision, and values set by leadership to create a holistic strategy around diversity. The strategy then influences how leadership promotes a culture built on mutual trust, understanding, integrity, and serving others by providing the resources to make ethical decisions and empower frontline staff to implement change.
Ethical Leadership style review
Ethical leadership is, at times, at odds with traditional business training. A leader’s ability to navigate the complex moral dilemma found in organizations is key to the success and failure of many organizations. In the following paragraphs, we will explore how these authors offer a better understanding of several different ethical leadership styles, evaluate the overall effectiveness of ideas and compare how each provides a perspective viewpoint to analyze our current organizations for how effective the leadership is.
Greenleaf’s concept of Servant-leaderships is a foundational component of how effective leaders are seen throughout organizations. Greenleaf says, “The servant-leader is servant first — as The Book portrayed Leo. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead (Greenleaf, 2018, p. 131).” Highlighting how a servant-leader is drawn to serve first through an altruistic need to see other progress and develop is a trait that echoes Johnson’s sentiment of how leaders need to understand the dark to cast light and advance. Johnson says, “To wield power wisely, leaders have to wrestle with all the issues outlined here. They have to consider what types of power they should use and when and for what purposes (Johnson, 2018, p. 64).” Greenleaf and Johnson consider that leaders must appropriately understand the meaning of how they are seen throughout the organization. How are they as leaders demonstrating the characteristics they are trying to impart to the employees in the organization? In the case of Greenleaf, the servant-leader understands people are first, even at times when this is taken to an extreme to the detriment of the business. Johnson sees the leader’s responsibility to know when, where, and for what purpose to utilize power to create the appropriate atmosphere to drive success as a vital component in a leader’s development. The light and shadows from Johnson are seen as extremes to Greenleaf. The continual examples spark a comparison of how these two pose different perspectives on leadership. While there are similarities of how Greenleaf and Johnson see leaders roles in an organization, Johnson focuses on the parallels of having leaders that cast light in the presence of shadow, and Greenleaf focuses on the understanding that light and shadow coexist but can be a function of environment for which the servant-leader can rise above. Greenleaf comments, “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 difficulty in administering, is: do those served to grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? Moreover, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least, will they not be further deprived (Greenleaf, 2018, p. 143)?”
The perspectives proposed in Greenleaf and Johnson’s readings are examples of how these two authors provided considerations when thinking about the role that ethics plays in being an ethical leader. Johnson’s first three chapters created a framework of traits to examine through the lens of leadership. Johnson’s elements of character, courage, temperance, practical wisdom, justice, optimism, integrity, humility, and compassion form the leader’s moral identity. The understanding of a leader is developing a sense of self in a crisis. Johnson says, “Our ultimate goal should be to make moral commitments central to our sense of self, to act in a virtuous manner regardless of the situation (Johnson, 2018, p. 208).” These two perspectives of establishing elements of character and establishing the standards for understanding servant-leadership are both perspectives that assess the qualities necessary for ethical leaders. Josephson, another author who provides insight into the conditions essential for determining the traits found in a moral leader capable of leading a successful organization, poses six defined pillars. Josephson’s pillars are Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship. When examining Josephson’s pillars, the reader can see how they mirror aspects found in Johnson’s elements of character and the traits highlight in Greenleaf’s explanation of a servant-leader.
Josephson says about his six pillars, “The Pillars can help us detect situations where we focus so hard on upholding one moral principle that we sacrifice another — were, intent on holding others accountable, we ignore the duty to be compassionate; were, intent on getting a job done, we ignore how (Josephson, 2002, p.7).” Compared to Greenleaf and Johnson, Josephson provides a system of checks and balances for which we can evaluate how effective a leader is in making ethical decisions. The moral leader is seen as a continuum on the spectrum based on the guidance provided by Josephson. Josephson comments, “No one is born with good character. It is not hereditary. Nevertheless, everyone, regardless of background, enters the world with the opportunity to become a person of exemplary character (Josephson, 2002, p. 32).” Both Greenleaf and Johnson mirror Josephson’s understanding of ethics and character as their perspectives are the elements of nature and the servant-leader are qualities that are developed over time.
Following the development of character, understanding what it takes to exemplify an ethical leader, and exhibiting aspects of servant-leadership, we can start to see how these skills and traits can benefit organizations. Organizations that keep these concepts central to developing leaders will consider “the likely impact of actions and words — including physical and emotional harm to others — we will make better choices and have better relationships. However, intelligent decision-making has more far-reaching effects than avoiding immediate harm (Josephson, 2002, p.19).” In considering these concepts, organizations mold new leaders in approaching situations more ethically, grounding decisions in a moral framework. Greenleaf’s understanding of how many organizations can immediately apply this framework is to concentrate on developing people. Through people, development influence will grow, and individuals will start to embody Greenleaf’s servant leader characteristics (Greenleaf, 2018). Johnson rounds out this perspective of how organizations can utilize the servant-leader and ethical pillars found in Greenleaf and Josephson, “developing leaders can also draw on organizational cultures and systems. Supportive organizations believe in continuous learning and staff development, provide funds for training, reward progress, and so on (Johnson, 2018, p.155).” Johnson is how the development of leaders, embodying the established elements and qualities, will help progress leaders and progress the organization. Much like Greenleaf and Josephson have determined, it is the culmination of all the skills, traits, and qualities that will develop an ethical servant-leader necessary to propel organizations forward.
As seen through Greenleaf, Johnson, and Josephson have provided an understanding of how ethical leaders can shape and guide an organization toward success. Understanding why it is essential for a leader to have the organizational acumen to analyze and approach situations in an ethical manner can be the deciding factor for whether an organization succeeds or fails.
My Leadership Philosophy — C.R.E.A.M
At the intersection of change, diversity, leadership, and success are people.
Above is my philosophy distilled in a single unifying sentence. I built on the foundational principles that I have come to understand about leadership, as it can only be shaped through my experience. CREAM, a partial reference to two musical references: Cash Rules by Iyla feat. Method Man and C.R.E.A.M (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) by Wu-Tang. An ironic connection to the primary function of business as, in many cases, money is the driving force; however, in consideration for driving organizational success, the people are the main drivers for generating revenue. For me, the philosophy is rooted in the success of the people that I lead. People being the center of the philosophy is paramount. However, they are influenced by what leadership means, personal values, operating principles, and expectations that I have crafted from my experiences. Individuals have modeled what a philosophy similar to this would look like.
So when people ask what leadership means to me, I respond, I am committed to ensuring that the right people, right place, right time — creating and leveraging partnerships with others to ensure that the individuals we employ align with the strategy and goals that we have determined based on the mission, vision, and values. Understanding how much I hold stock in the organization's people is more than just cogs in a mechanism. I share this philosophy as an invitation to form a partnership based on a common baseline understanding of what I expect of myself and what I expect of you.
I share this philosophy to have a shared understanding and to form an enduring partnership. At the heart of my principles, the intersection ensures an equal playing field for myself and those that I support, more than Greenleaf’s concept of servant leadership but a real investment in people. The investment is founded on a set of personal values that I try to fulfill daily; while this is not an exhaustive list; there are several critical points:
· Cream. The magic that happens when things just come together. I am a very pragmatic process focused individual. I do not react to systems and feel most satisfied when we approach problems by solving the root cause. If you ask me about Lean, Change, flow, or development, I smile.
· Start at the beginning. I ask why to understand my role, our stakes, and all alternatives.
· Potential. I embrace the potential that change and conflict can bring.
These values help ground how I operate. Operating from a strategic perspective, the following operating principle allows me to maneuver and navigate some of the more complex challenges leaders face:
· Balance. Without an understanding that we employ people with lives, health concerns, challenges, we cannot guarantee success. I put people first, both personal well-being and family urgencies, before the organization’s routine business.
· Moral Courage. I’m an advocate for all employees. I understand that there are certain times and circumstances when I must take action despite the risk of adverse personal consequences.
· Organizational Acumen. I leverage the knowledge of systems, people, structures, and processes and how they work together to make the enterprise healthy. I value allies and make connections because I believe we rise and fall as one.
Both the personal values and operational principles influence my expectations for myself and my people. What I expect from them can be best presented below:
· Be Present. Show up, focus, and own your success. Know you’re why here and how you can contribute deliberately and unrelentingly in that direction.
· Integrity. Identify trustworthy allies to grow your network of partners and get work done. Be intentional in how you develop and expand your reputation for integrity.
· Evaluate. Feed me well-formed, well-researched points of view, facts, and information, and I will take you seriously. Allow me time to review the information before asking me to make decisions independently. I need this time and space to be most valuable to you.
· Team. The most important team is not the team you lead; it is the team you are on. Be generous with your talents, abilities, and transfer knowledge. The team’s success should be the highest purpose for which we all strive.
· Develop. What is yours? Why? What is your natural best and highest use? What do you do extraordinarily well with little effort? Know this. Then let me know. This will motivate me to identify opportunities for you, but it is up to you to pursue them.
Throughout the “CREAM,” leadership philosophies are hints and insights into the journey and experiences it took to develop. The components of organizational overview, organizational culture, and ethical leadership contribute to helping shape and define core tenets of the leadership philosophy, specifically the principles of potential, moral courage, and organizational acumen.
Based on experience and grounded in the current understanding of applying leadership principles, the next move is the continual refinement of the philosophy toward a more comprehensive one.
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