This past week’s lecture from David Hatch and class activity on Monday had a very compelling message; the topic was ethical leadership.  I had a basic understanding of what ethics were, but I didn’t realize how important a role they play.  Tons of decisions that we make are based on ethics, and something we talked about was that moral and ethical values differ from person to person.  And even further, there are a lot of gray areas where we are forced to decide between two things we value.  In class, we did an activity where we were given situations and had to decide if we agreed or disagreed with the decision being made.  I didn’t expect to have such a hard time deciding on so many of them!  The answers were not obvious or clear cut, and they often involved letting one moral standard fall in order to keep another one.  What it all comes down to is what you value, so we were instructed to write a code of ethics for ourselves.

My Personal Code of Ethics:

1) I will always put my family and God as my highest priorities, and anything that conflicts with these priorities I will subordinate.

2) I will consistently put others above myself and find ways every day to serve those around me in meaningful ways.

3) I will always be obedient—foremost, to the commandments given to us by God, and also to the laws of the land or of any organization with which I am involved.

4) I will have integrity in all my endeavors, even if it means giving up something I want to be honest with others and true to my own values.

5) I will have compassion and continually strive to see things through new perspectives so that I can sympathize with others.

6) I will respect my family, friends, classmates, teachers, leaders, employers, and myself.

7) I will be trustworthy in everything I do and follow through with my responsibilities and obligations.

8) I will be accountable for my actions and make any reparations necessary to amend any of my mistakes.

      In leadership, being ethical in all you do is vital to your institution.  First of all, you need to establish yourself as ethical so that people will want to follow you and know that they can put their trust in you.  You need to lead for the right reasons and do what is right for the group, not for yourself.  Furthermore, you need to have a strong moral conscience so that you can avoid many problems that can plague an organization with weak ethical standards.  Aside from internal issues with ethics within a company, unethical decisions can sometimes even lead to financial or legal issues.  And the way that you can lead ethically is by setting clear standards, like this code of ethics, and never wavering from them.  By sending that message early on, people will realize you’re serious about it and won’t change your mind or be easily tempted to break your standards.  Ethical leadership, although it is a concept sometimes overlooked, is crucial to any successful organization.