LEADERSHIP

Your Future Is Waiting

Phillip V. Lewis

• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781647531843
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

New winds are blowing across the face of organizational life in business, education, religion, and government. As a current or aspiring leader, you must be aware of the direction and force of that wind to steer safely into the future. You must recognize the dangers, maintain balance, and discover how to transform organizations and followers into productive entities and people. You must lead with integrity and skill. You must be flexible, porous, adaptive, and fleet-of-foot to build your organization after the same pattern. In the future you will be expected to hustle, chart new courses, and be engaged fully with swift, stimulating actions—constantly improving everything. Revolutionary changes are occurring in the world today that will forever alter the way leaders meet the needs of their stakeholders. The future is waiting for such leaders. Are you ready?

II. LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.

Jim Rohn, American Speaker and Author

Chapters

5. Does Right Seem Wrong Seem Right? Ethics and Integrity

6. Has Greed Become Legal? Ethics and Cheating

7. Can Only a Dead Person Keep a Secret? Communication Flows, Networks, and Feedback

8. Are You Reading Him (Her) Right? Communication Barriers and Nonverbal Communication

9. Isn’t It Good to be the Queen (King)? Power and Influence

10. Are We All in This Together? Teams, Teamwork, and Work Groups

11. Can You Outwit, Outplay, Outlast, Survive? Motivation and Empowerment

5

Does Right Seem Wrong Seem Right?

Ethics and Integrity

Adversity is a test of our stability—our ability to endure, to survive. But prosperity is a test of our integrity. Like nothing else, it reveals the honest-to-goodness truth regarding our most basic value system. Difficult though it may be to grasp this fact, integrity is hammered out on the anvil of prosperity … or it fails the test completely.

Charles R. Swindoll, Author, President of Dallas Theological Seminary

For I have walked in my integrity … I will walk in my integrity … Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.

Psalm 26:1, 11; 119:1 (NKJV)

In Frank Capra’s 1946 classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey (James Stewart) has a chance to make his dreams come true. His longtime nemesis, the rich, powerful, and mean Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore) offers him a job with a lucrative salary. But there’s a catch in the job offer. If Bailey accepts the position, Potter gets to shut down Bailey Brothers Building and Loan—a business that has been serving the working people of Bedford Falls for many years.

The job offer is tempting, and Bailey asks for 24 hours to think about it. It was a deal that would allow him to travel the world with his wife Mary (Donna Reed). Then, as he is shaking Potter’s hand, he changes his mind. He says, “Wait a minute here. I don’t need 24 hours. I don’t need to talk to anybody. I know right now. The answer is no, no, no.”

Bailey could live in the nicest house in Bedford Falls, buy his wife new clothes, and travel the world. But when he arrives at this ethical intersection in his life, when he is faced with an ethical dilemma, he draws from a well-stocked pantry of convictions he has been storing up since childhood. He checks his moral compass, makes the right decision, and says “no.”

If the movie had had a current date instead of 70 plus years earlier, would George Bailey take the job? Or would he be more like Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) in the 1987 movie Wall Street and the 2010 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and give in to greed?

Business history indicates that leaders, followers, and organizations engage in questionable, dishonest, unethical, and even illegal acts. Worldwide corruption has become a serious problem, and it needs to be understood and combated. Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, and others have taught us through vicarious experience about dishonesty in the workplace. Few professions are immune from public embarrassment of ethical misconduct. Cheating is commonplace, and there is no reason to expect that it will cease to exist. Ethical misconduct has become a conspicuous part of corporate life. Leaders, followers, and organizations have yet to achieve an enlightened state where all behaviors are governed by the very highest ethical standards.

If we had received such a heighted state of behavior, we wouldn’t have situations like reported in May 2010 of a University of Kansas ticket scandal. The KU report alleged that Tom and Charlette Blubaugh, Rodney Jones, and Brandon Simmons inappropriately sold or used 2,181 men’s football tickets worth $122,000 and 17,609 basketball tickets worth $887,000 for personal reasons. The tickets were disguised as complimentary and inventory tickets, or other categories with limited accountability. Any decision on legal action is pending at the time of this writing.

In your opinion, is there anything we can do about this? Are there times when right seems wrong, and wrong seems right? Can we find answers for ethical dilemmas in the workplace? Is it possible to improve ethical behavior? Is there even such a thing as “business ethics”? (In this chapter, research will tell all. I will show what my research has revealed about our beliefs in business ethics.)

Ethics

Imagine the following scenario: You and I are negotiating. You own a bank, and I agree to give you some of my money. OK? What if I give you someone else’s money? It’s not illegal. Is it ethical? Or, how about this: We’re buying goods from Bangladesh. There are people in sweatshops, starving. What’s a fair wage? What are the ethics in such a situation?

The study of ethics is an ancient tradition, rooted in religious, cultural, and philosophical beliefs. However, it is obvious that not everyone agrees as to what is ethical and what is not. What causes such disagreement? Is it the complexity, dynamism, and interdependence of business? Is it because business operations are often tainted with compromise? Is it that judgment is clouded on questions of what’s right and wrong, unethical or ethical? Or is it that we have ignored (or denied) the importance of values and morals for ethical decisions?

To illustrate: Some sales people might not curse in front of a Christian if they knew it would offend and cost them a sale. On the other hand, some might curse because they feel it is their freedom to speak as they wish, and they want to be themselves with everyone. Similarly, some business people might not steal office supplies because they don’t want to be seen doing it, be reprimanded, or go to jail. In contrast, some might steal office supplies because they view these items as perks or as adjusted com...

Table of contents

• Leadership
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• I. The Art Of Leadership
• II. Leadership Challenges
• III. Leadership Strategy
• IV. Leadership Essentials
• Sources
• About the Author