Honesty and integrity are the greatest character traits in strong leaders. Ethics in leadership would annihilate corruption. The greatest leaders who are held in high esteem have integrity and the leaders lacking in integrity are despised.
John C. Maxwell in Developing The Leader Within You said, "The secret to rising and not falling is integrity."
Lorin Woolfe the author of Leadership: Secrets From The Bible said, "integrity is the measure of leadership."
The person of integrity does not believe the ends justify the means.
Without integrity nothing else you do matters. You could master every other skill but without integrity you will be a weak leader. This is true because your followers will lose their respect for you. You can gain it back but it requires a lot of work.
Unethical leaders affect a whole lot more people than themselves. People like to feel they are making a difference in the world. If they know their leader is not ethical, then the followers do not feel good about their purpose for working in that organization.
Ethics in leadership requires you the leader to have values and principles. The most effective leaders are passionate about something. Your passion needs to spill over to your followers. Your followers must know your passion and values are real. Your followers must know that you are not saying and doing things just to gain a following or to become popular. You will have a lot of angry people on your hand if you change your mind and values halfway through.
Ethics is to know the difference between right and wrong. Ethics is not trying to beat the system. A big test of ethics is when nobody is watching and you are faced with a strong temptation to bend the rules to make your life easier or more pleasurable.
The other ethical test is moral and personal courage. It is the strength to be the only one taking action for the right. It can be a big temptation to do nothing to take action if you face the risk for heartache, opposition, trial or ridicule.
Stephen Covey in his book Everyday Greatness writes how a mom in Texas discovered that her high school son in football was using steroids. She learned from her son that the steroid problem was widespread among the team.
She risked her relationship with her son and the entire community to expose a steroid problem in the high school football team. This mom was on a crusade. The school board didn't believe her so she went to the media to expose the steroid use. She was not looking out after just her son but the entire community. She easily could have hammered down on her son and left it alone, but she didn't. Her efforts caused the school district to make policy changes.
True integrity is not situational. Integrity is a Latin word for whole or entire. Integrity is having uncompromised values. Your values never change based on the opinions of others. Truth is eternal and will never change. If your values are based on truth, then you don't have to worry about being exposed.
The U.S. Constitution was divinely directed with its checks and balances which holds corruption to a minimum if the constitution is followed. Power corrupts. Your business should have your own unique system of checks and balances to help keep you honest. This may be through a code of ethics that you strictly follow. There is strength in council. Surround yourself with people who will call you out when your thinking is off course.
3 More Concepts About Integrity
Congruent: You are not divided about what you think, feel, say and do.
Humility: You are not egotistical, prideful or arrogant. You are more concerned about doing the right thing than being right. Humility is not weakness but a great strength.
Courage: I have already touched on this but it is important. It can be extremely hard to take action and face the possibility of ridicule and oppression. If you consciously think about taking courageous action in advance, you will be more likely to overcome your fear of your consequences for taking the right action.
Conclusion: Ethics in leadership is a very important to success. Success is dependent on integrity. There is no reason to be business without a strong ethical code.
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