Leadership and Ethical Thinking

Leadership can be defined as the process of social influence where one individual can gather the support of others in the accomplishment of a task. The leader may or may not have any formal authority. Somebody who directs or guides others or whom people follow is known as a leader. The characteristic of the honorable spirit of humanity is the thoughtful tenderness toward the compassion towards others. Actions of respect, fair play and decency have given a chance for the society to develop from their beginnings of primitivism to the rights of the constitution and the rule of law that guards men and women in their diverse democracies.

We should not take series of wrong doings to describe our society. Instead, we are supposed to source human wisdom from the gold standards in an effort to develop future best practices. We are animate human beings, led by emotions that flow into depth. Polluting our environment with dishonesty, greed and anger, we reduce the standard of the environment where we live. On the other hand, if we would fill our space with wholeness, enthusiasm and fairness decency, we are charged to deliver creativity and better performance. At this point, leadership is important, but not just leadership at the upper level. Despite the senior leaders setting up the pitch for action, they do not achieve the results by themselves. As put by Goleman Daniel in his book, the Social Intelligence, there exists an economy that is emotional, underlying performance capital under which business successes are built. Sticking to the emotional and social intelligence is the quality of an ethical leader. We can come to a conclusion with an evaluation of the importance of the standards to leadership practitioners across the board (Cady, 2005).

Ethical leadership - Boosting positive relationship gives better results at three heights of the life of the organization. Leadership ethics across all the three heights foster the development of the relationships that empower human enterprises.

Personal well-being of the individual - Psychologist Goleman Daniel and Biologists Lipton Bruce produced a research that reveals that others mould for good or for bad effects of internal chemistry supporting our well-being.

Energizing the team - Contemporary theories give the level at which we can measure the participation and efforts the teams have put  in our breed to rise in dominance. It is great whenever individuals come together to support and inspire one another in order to achieve the best results of the team.

The organization as a whole - The impressive model to emulate at the organizational level is derived from biological sciences in the form of the physical human body. In this case, cells work together in cooperation and harmony to know what to do in order to support health and well-being. In this case, if an infection interferes with the cells and the condition goes without being checked, it can damage the body. The same way the infection causes breakdown in the human body if they do not work together anymore, the same happens in the business organization if people fail to respect each other’s worth. Poor performance occurs in the organization and leads to failure of the processes to function (Geraldine, n.d.).

Ethical Thinking - By studying ethics, one arrives at clearer arguments and positions on real life issues and can help in its application. Thinking about ethical theory may change an individual’s mind about issues in the today’s world.

Ways of applying ethics to one’s life

Being kind to the environment - Many people have the perception to using certain kinds of households as neutral lifestyles choices. Ethics, however, demand a certain kind of interaction with the world around an individual.

Consider your interaction with animals - Some people live with the perception that animals do not really matter ethically. Most theories fail to agree. One should consider some ethical arguments before raising cattle inhumanely or abusing a dog. Animals feel pain and suffer the very human feelings and this suffering and pain gives them the right to be accorded ethical respect.

Defend and respect human rights - There are basic things to which human beings are entitled since they are alive and are humans. This forms the basis into the inquiry of human rights. Ethics explain a lot about who has the rights, what those rights are and why. Debates about the genocide, torture, women rights, welfare and free speech of the 21st century, all focus on human rights.

Become ethical in your career - Doctors, lawyers, engineers, journalists and accountants should be sensitive and avoid conflicts of interest to the ethical requirement of their jobs. Ethical professionals are better professionals. Being ethical in one’s career can lead to great results. Lawyers, for example must defend shady characters to give fair defense in the eyes of everyone.

 Some ethical problems of today come as a result of practice of medicine, especially with the use of biotechnology. Abortion, euthanasia, human cloning and genetic engineering challenge the perception and beliefs about human life, its identity and dignity (DuBrin, 2011).

In conclusion, effective leadership is a process, a creation and an achievement of the vision. Ethical leadership is about whether the objective or the vision is good for the whole society. Effective leadership answers the question how, while ethical leadership is about the outcomes of leadership. When evaluating leadership, one should put focus on the ethics and effectiveness. Finally, the assumption that leadership is good should be stopped.