Working Ethically
As a leader, you may embrace a set of beliefs that your team members may or may not hold. If you disagree with something that people consider fundamental to their identities, you can quickly develop high degrees of enmity and antagonism to your goals. If that happens, you can largely forget about the chance of actually accomplishing anything.
Workable Concept
Instead of looking to morality, as a leader you should focus on ethics. In general, you'll find that people agree more readily on ethics than on underlying morality. The reason why is a mystery. Perhaps it is easier to accept a defined set of actions rather than argue the reasons for them. People are then free to fill in their own reasons and rationales. Whatever the reason, people are far more amenable to adopting ethical frameworks than moral ones.
Need for Ethics
The reasons your team needs to perform ethically are the flip-side of the problems that occur when it ignores ethical issues:
Undercut principles you espouse, which hurts the organization
Undermine goals, also hurting the organization
Spend time and energy justifying actions, wasting resources
Loss of trust from those whose help you need, making goals harder to reach
What goes around comes around
Any of these problems can hurt your team's efforts and leave you further from your goals than ever. Short-sighted people may think that circumventing ethical boundaries gets them to their destination more quickly. However, the truth is that if you are trying to be a real leader, the ethical path is the only one that can actually bring you where you need to be.
Ethics Become Vital
In every business, in every position, everyone understands one common concept: the importance of acting in a professional manner.
There is no limit to the areas in which people act professionally, even if they are not in one of the traditionally licensed professions. Waiters, babysitters, corporate employees, nonprofit volunteers, and everyone who takes on responsibilities and duties can act professionally.
Think of your own life for a moment. Which plumber would you rather hire? Which taxi would you use? Which salesperson would you patronize? Doctor? Fundraiser? The answer is most likely the more professional one. When you are ethical — that is, professional — you create trust and confidence and make all manners of people want to cooperate and work with you. This comes right back to the definition and goal of leadership.
