Ethics – Key to leadership success

Ethics is about good and evil, right and wrong, and of duty and obligation in human conduct; and how we reason and make choices about them (Hicks, R.). Ethical leadership plays a major role in creation of an entrepreneurial team. Northouse (2007) suggested that ethical leadership is founded on respect, service, justice, honesty and community. Ethical leaders treat other people’s decisions, ideas and values with respect; allow other to be themselves with creative desires. The leaders listen to them attentively, empathize with them and are tolerant of opposite opinions. Furthermore, the leaders place people’s benefits ahead of their own, foster others’ visions and integrate all of them to contribute to a common goal. They have a responsibility to attend to others and be a service to them (Northouse, 2007).

It is said about Robbie Hardy, president of Chapel Hill-based IntraSoft and North Carolina’s Entrepreneur of the Year 1997 by Business Leader magazine, that “She knows what people can do best and empowers them to make the most of their talents." Her colleague confirms, "She gets true satisfaction from helping staff and associates reach higher and perform better. She knows what she does best and what she doesn't, and enthusiastically shares responsibility and power." Hardy’s ethical leadership is evidenced by the fact that she set up a superior entrepreneurial team; and the original CI Technologies (CIT) team stayed together for CI Partners (CIP) and has reformulated itself for Intrasoft (Lester, 1998).

With respect, support, trust and encouragement from leaders, subordinates can feel competent about their work and many innovative ideas come into world without fear for failure. Justice and honesty are also important characteristics of leaders. Leaders keep issue of fairness in mind when making decisions. They do not lie nor do they tell the truth in a destructive way.
Respect, support, honesty and justice are extremely substantial in entrepreneurial teams as they are the key ingredients in developing trust and cooperative relationships between leaders and subordinates which are very important to a successful enterprise process.

Beside their own and followers’ objectives, ethical leaders need to take into account the community’s goals. Leaders have to be sensitive to the world in which they operate. They pay attention to how the firm will affect the community, society and environment. What leaders and their subordinates contribute to community may become sources of competitive advantage, one of the vital drivers for innovative team growth and development. Lush Cosmetics is a typical example. Constantine, founder of Lush, has strong ethical stance of anti-animal testing, “green” packaging (minimal / no packaging) which give Lush the competitive advantage, and help to differentiate Lush from its competitors (Purkayastha, 2008).

In conclusion, the best leaders should exhibit their ethics in their leadership style and actions. Ethics is considered as a secret of leadership success.
Let me leave you with words from Guy Kawasaki, a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine: “Given a choice, most people would rather work for an ethical company” – under an ethical leadership (Perry, 2004).


References:

Hicks, R. Ethics and Leadership. Retrieved 2008-11-15 from http://level2.cap.gov/documents/Ethics_and_Leadership_Brief.pdf

Lester, M. C. (1998). 1997 Top Gun Enterpreneur of the Year. Business Leader Magazine. Retrieved on October 31, 2008 from http://www.businessleadermagazine.com/Index.aspx?page=ui.article&PID=7707

Perry, D. (2004). Ethics, Leadership and Success. Retrieved 2008-11-15 from
http://www.perrymartel.com/PDFs/Ethics%20Leadership%20and%20Success.pdf

Purkayastha, D. (2008). Sustainable Packaging Practices at Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. ICFAI Center for Management Research.