When people think of ethical leadership, they think of accounting fraud and insider trading, for instance, the likes of Enron. These are extreme incidents that form a relatively small percentage of incidents. To me, ethical leadership is about all aspects of our lives. This includes how we conserve and protect the environment, how we work with suppliers, the carbon footprint in our products, how we treat our employees, the things we choose to support, all of these things that make up our persona. When we demonstrate ethical leadership by the way we live our lives, it becomes clear to those around us, our colleagues, friends and relatives, the values that we adhere and stick to.
Where does my ethical compass come from? Simply put, it comes from my parents. From a very young age, my parents instilled in their children the values of discipline and diligence, that there is no free lunch and one has to work hard and strive in order to do well in life, even though success is never guaranteed. I had observed how hard they had worked to keep the family going, making sacrifices and providing us with educational opportunities, food and shelter so that we might do well in life. For this, I am forever grateful.
In the course of my career, there were instances when my ethical leadership was being tested. When I was heading the training unit in a multi-national manufacturing company about 10 years ago, and was preparing to conduct a week of training to the new engineers, I remember the Director telling me to ‘make sure they pass the course’ even before the course began. He was pushing his weight around to get what he wanted. In a clinical research organisation where I was the Regional Training Manager, a senior management member insisted that I sent him the training slides despite the fact that he had no role in training and just wanted to collect these slides for his own use. These experiences solidified my belief that it is important to live by our values and not be easily influenced or pressured, especially by those with power or in authority.
To summarise, ethical leadership is about leaving things better than we found them. Be it in school, at work, in homes, ethical leadership is about living our lives according to a set of values and that our whole persona fits into that umbrella. It is about being true to ourselves and to others.
Dr Casey Ho, 18 Dec 2020
