1. The Heart of Leadership PLC 2007
Ethics
The Heart of Leadership
PLC 2007

2. Ethics Defined A system for thinking about What we should do
What we should be
It is about right, wrong, good, and evil
The relationship of humans to each other and to the world/cosmos

3. The Four Dilemma Paradigms
Truth versus Loyalty
Individual versus Community
Short-term versus Long-term
Justice versus Mercy

4. Truth vs. Loyalty Confidentiality Honesty Friendship
Being true to your word

5. Individual vs. Community
Honoring individual rights
Serving the community

6. Short-term vs. Long-term
Immediate and important concerns
Life-long and important concerns

7. Justice vs. Mercy Legally right Morally right
The death penalty and minors

8. All Real Dilemmas Involve real people, real situations
Whose dilemma is this?
Never Sui Generis
Each value is right
Each value appears to exclude the other
Analysis of a dilemma is not a resolution of it

9. 3 Principles to test the twin rights of a dilemma
Three ways of thinking about issues
Ends-based
Rule-based
Care-based

10. Ends-based Thinking Utilitarianism or
Do whatever produces the greatest good for the greatest number
Cost benefit analysis
The staple of public policy

11. Rule-based Thinking Kant’s “the categorical imperative”
Follow only the principle that you want everyone else to follow
Create and follow a universal standard (Duty)
Opposed to utilitarianism – can’t know the entire consequences of our actions

12. Care-based Thinking
Golden Rule “Do to others what you would like them to do to you.”
Empathetic living / walking in another’s shoes
How would it feel if you were the recipient rather than the perpetrator of your actions?

13. The Point
These tests will not deliver an airtight answer to your dilemma.
They are not a magic answer kit that produces an infallible solution.
They are ways to exercise our moral rationality.
They are lenses that will give us focus on how to proceed to cope with difficult choices.

14. John W. Gardner "Moral Dimension"
"ULTIMATELY LEADERS ARE JUDGED WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF VALUES.“
Justice
Liberty
Equality of opportunity
Dignity of the individual
Sanctity of private religious beliefs

15. Violations of Moral Leadership
Leader inflicts cruelty on constituents. (Idi Amin's 100,000 or Stalin's million)
Leader encourages violations of norms of the culture. (K.K.K.)
Leader utilizes violations of norms as a source of motivation and power. (Papa Doc Duvalier or The Ayatollah Khomeini)
Leader establishes and maintains an unhealthy dependencies in constituents. (James Jones or David Koresh)
Leader destroys previous processes that generated commonly shared values and norms. (Mussolini or Mao Tse Tung)

16. Adolf Hitler The end justifies the means
Extol the virtues of heroic war
Control reality (distortions) by all means necessary

17. Moral leadership within the American Culture should be able to
Facilitate, encourage, and develop processes that enable and empower others to create possibilities above and beyond the status quo.
Balance individual and corporate needs and purposes (the greater good vs. special interest groups).
Defend and preserve shared laws, customs, beliefs, and norms
Encourage active participation on the part of others in establishing and pursuing shared goals.

18. The Paradoxes of Moral Leadership
As a culture we want
Leaders who don’t hunger for power
Leaders who serve the common good
To dislike paternalism
To bemoan lack of leadership
But at the same time
The power hungry get the positions
Serve our special interests
Love Father/mother figures
We do not treat our leaders very well