What Ethical Leadership Really Looks Like in Today’s World

Ethical leadership embodies honesty, transparency, accountability, and justice. To be an ethical leader, you need to know right from wrong, have a voice, and be willing to use it to speak up against bad behavior. You follow a steady moral compass to better your community or organization. If you want to step into a leadership role with integrity, you need to recognize the challenges you may face and understand what it takes to truly become an ethical leader. Consider what ethical leadership looks like today.

Ethical Leaders Balance Profit with Purpose

Even nonprofit organizations need to make money to fulfill their missions. But the for-profit side is more acutely driven by economics. However, that doesn’t mean an organization needs to forgo its principles to enhance the bottom line. In fact, ethical companies actually outperform their peers. And you don’t need to look far to find companies that perform well while maintaining ethical principles. Patagonia famously ran a 2011 Black Friday ad in the New York Times urging its would-be customers: “Don’t Buy This Jacket” in an effort to address the issue of consumerism. In 2018, it took $10 million it had acquired through what the company called an “irresponsible tax cut,” and gave it to climate causes. And in 2022, rather than going public, the company’s owner Yvon Chouinard transferred 100% of the multi-billion-dollar company’s voting stock to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and its nonvoting stock to the Holdfast Collective. In his statement, Chouinard said, “Instead of ‘going public,’ you could say we’re ‘going purpose.’”

Ethical Leaders Embrace Transparency

Ethical leaders are honest and authentic. They share information openly, invite feedback, and own mistakes. When you communicate how decisions are made, you build trust through honesty. And your authenticity, transparency, and accountability set an example for others and encourage your team to be honest in the workplace.

Some steps you can take to ensure transparency include:

• Be authentic and honest
• Model integrity by being fair and admitting mistakes
• Communicate openly and often, sharing both good and bad news
• Encourage feedback by providing channels for team member to air concerns
• Act on feedback to make positive, visible changes
• Hold yourself accountable to the same standards you demand of others
• Protect ethical whistleblowing with clear, safe reporting structures
• Celebrate transparency and courage to reinforce a culture where truth is valued

Ethical Leaders Practice Compassionate Decision-Making

As an ethical leader, you look at how policies and actions affect real people, and you try to minimize harm and promote the wellbeing of others. Choosing to act compassionately even when it might have negative financial consequences can be a difficult path. But in 2014, CVS did just that when they discontinued the sale of tobacco products because of their negative health impact. The company lost billions of dollars, but stood on the side of the CVS purpose to positively affect health care.

Airbnb has also displayed corporate compassion. When the war in Ukraine began, Airbnb opened its platform to offer free temporary housing for more than 100,000 refugees. And it mobilized hosts across the globe to provide volunteer accommodations.

Ethical Leaders Stand Up to Challenges

Leading with ethics may be the right thing to do, but what’s right isn’t always easy. Staying firm to your principles may test your integrity and commitment to the public good. As an ethical leader in local government or a government-funded agency, you might be faced with bureaucratic red tape that can slow decision making and approval processes. It can be tempting to move forward on your own accord without following protocol, but that creates a lack of transparency and breaks trust with your stakeholders and the public. The actions of others can also challenge your integrity. If you witness corruption, lack of transparency, or bribery, your duty to report it might conflict with your concern about becoming a whistleblower.

In the private sector, where there may be less scrutiny of your actions, it’s even more important to stand up to negative influences and do the right thing. For example, you may be pressured by management to fudge the numbers on performance reports or financial records. Or you may be asked to overlook a client’s misdeeds to land a lucrative deal. It takes courage to stand on the side of ethics when people above you may not be acting ethically.

Creating Respectful Environments

Ethics and respect are inseparable—each reinforcing the other and together defining the kind of foundation of trust and credibility that great leaders build. As an ethical leader, you foster an environment where respect is a requirement. And show respect to others by communicating effectively, listening attentively, and expressing empathy. You open honest dialogue with your co-workers and encourage them to do the same. You demonstrate your appreciation for your team and refuse to play favorites. And respect the rules by enforcing them and abiding them. Leaders who genuinely respect others naturally act with fairness, honesty, and empathy. Respecting people’s perspectives, time, and dignity discourages exploitation, favoritism, and bias.

Do you want to be an ethical leader? At Claremont Lincon University, we offer a variety of degree programs that promote transparency, accountability, and fairness in leadership. All our programs are built with the Claremont Core – a set of leadership courses that encourage collaboration, self-reflection and the development of transferable, transformative skills that enable you to make a sustainable impact upon your community. Request info now to learn more about all our programs.