What does moral leadership mean to you?
But what, you ask, can one person do? Perhaps you’ve been told that a company’s values have to emanate from the top. That’s tosh. In a networked world, when one brave soul speaks up, it emboldens others… Ask yourself, within my sphere of leadership, what standards do I regard as inviolable? Where am I unwilling to sacrifice my own integrity? What is my “moral signature”? What values do I want others to infer from my actions?
And conversely, where have I fallen victim to greed, hubris or power? When have I shut up when I should have spoken up? ….Stand tall for the moral values you believe in…If we’re going to have a world worth inhabiting, each one of us must have the courage to do a “fearless moral inventory”. If you’re a leader of any sort, in any organisation, now would be a good time to start. Gary Hamel
I love Gary Hamel’s phrase “fearless moral inventory”. It reminds me that it is my absolute responsibility to ensure that as a human being, my leadership is framed by my choice of moral values.
Why does this matter? It matters because our values reflect the type of moral leadership that we aspire to and the way that our teams, customers and stakeholders perceive and respond to us. By extension, our values also reflect on our customer – the customer chooses to engage us on the basis of how we present and conduct ourselves. If our values suck, if we act like buffoons, then we disrespect and dishonor our customer.
Gary reminds me that moral leadership involves stepping back regularly and taking stock – looking within ourselves to question our values; challenging ourselves to look at the values we hold and the way that they show through to others. We need to have the courage to admit that sometimes we get it wrong and that our values need to be reassessed – and that’s OK.
Moral leadership isn’t static. It is not a “set and forget’ type model – it lives and breathes within each of us. As our circumstances change, as we grow and are shaped by our expereinces, it becomes ever more important to maintain that “fearless moral inventory”.
How do you check in on your moral values? Do they change or stay the same? How do they show through within your leadership framework? I wonder if there are core moral leadership values that we all share, or whether we have different values depending on our individual environments or circumstances. Food for thought!
The post “What Can One Person Do?” – The Importance of Moral Leadership appeared first on Tony Adams - Project Manager.