SLC 300 (601) Fall 2024 Leading with an Ethical Perspective

Although the term “leadership” is frequently used, this semester has shown me that moral leadership is more about deeds than titles. Integrity, which demands bravery and constancy in doing the right thing even when no one is looking, is the foundation of true leadership. As I think back on my experiences and the lessons I’ve learned in this course, I’ve realized that integrity is essential to ethical leadership and that its absence can have serious repercussions. 

The situation with Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft provided a particularly notable illustration of damaged integrity. Knowing the safety hazards, several engineers and pilots refused to let their own families ride on these aircraft, according to an article we reviewed. Despite being aware of the seriousness of the design problems, these experts had to deal with a company that put profits ahead of safety. This serves as a clear reminder that responsible and open leadership is essential. Integrity violations jeopardize lives, damage reputations, and destroy confidence. This example emphasizes to young professionals the value of speaking out and keeping ourselves to the highest standards, even when doing so feels challenging or controversial.

A story on a promotional event related to the “Willy Wonka” brand provided yet another lesson. Youngsters who came to the event anticipating a wonderful experience were let down by the poor execution, which did not live up to the brand’s promise. This illustration shows how relationships with stakeholders and trust may be harmed by not living up to expectations. In order to be an ethical leader, one must not only fulfill commitments but also work to beyond them. Building credibility and enduring relationships requires keeping promises with quality and empathy, whether one is managing a team or providing client service.

Personally, this semester has helped me better grasp how ethical leadership is shaped by virtues like honesty, compassion, and openness. I’ve discovered that having integrity as a leader entails being forthright about one’s shortcomings, owning up to errors, and looking for solutions that put the welfare of people first. These ideas are useful for settling disputes, reaching choices, and building team trust, among other things.

Being self-aware and dedicated to personal principles are the first steps on the road to being an ethical leader for young professionals. Check to see whether my choices are consistent with my values. Am I putting other people’s needs ahead of my own immediate interests? Am I compromising my own integrity? Are my personal relationships providing me with happiness? How can I meet my satisfaction and success goals for myself in my career? Although it may not always result in instant benefits, ethical leadership cultivates respect, trust, and long-term success—qualities that characterize real leaders.

One thing is evident to me as I consider these lessons: growth, not perfection, is what leadership is all about. It involves making decisions that benefit others and attempting to match deeds with ideals. Integrity is still the cornerstone of effective and moral leadership, whether one is tackling difficult problems or just setting an example in day-to-day interactions.

Leading with an ethical perspective is not a decision you make, it is actions that you continually prioritize. Leadership is more than directing a team to meet organizational goals; it is the duty to make decisions that align with core values that are best for the whole. Ethical leadership is not about having the right answers, it is about asking the right questions that challenge assumptions and prioritize the greater good. The key to understanding how to lead with an ethical perspective is understanding that the role ethics plays in leadership is not an abstract idea, it is a daily practice.

After being introduced to the ethical frameworks of utilitarianism, which focuses on maximizing overall well-being, and deontology, which emphasizes duties and principles I walked away with practical tools to help me evaluate complex situations. As young professionals, we can use these ethical frameworks to navigate uncharted waters. Entering the workforce is a challenging transition, but being able to make decisions within the guidelines of ethical leadership fosters a situation where you are led to make a decision that ensures that the immediate impacts and long-term results of the decisions we make are considered. Using utilitarianism and deontology helps you understand how to balance outcomes and principles while continuing to ask the right questions. Pairing utilitarianism and deontology is a way to layer the importance of staying true to your core values while considering others. 

Vulnerability is a core value that is often misunderstood and overlooked by people in leadership. If leaders fail to recognize that they do not have all the answers they will fail to succeed. A leader who humbles themselves and prioritizes fostering an environment where diverse perspectives are valued makes more thoughtful and inclusive decisions. Leading with vulnerability is not a weakness, it is an opportunity to connect with those around you. Leaders who are open and allow people to connect with them on a deeper level make more human decisions. Knowing when to ask for help is powerful and vulnerability and openness build trust and comradery. 

Vulnerability is a practice I’ve started applying to my daily life. I have taken actionable steps to be more vulnerable. It is challenging to be vulnerable, but a simple first step is seeking feedback from peers and colleagues, even when it’s uncomfortable. Making simple steps towards being vulnerable is not easy, but the impact it can have on you is profound. Young professionals in the early stages of their careers may not hold high risk leadership roles, but ethical leadership begins now. We can see ethical leadership at work in how we choose to collaborate with teammates, the words we choose to use when we communicate, and the values we find ourselves prioritizing. Speaking up when you see someone being mistreated or misunderstood is a vulnerable experience that can set the tone for how you will lead with an ethical perspective.

By committing to ethical practices now like the frameworks of utilitarianism and deontology, and being more vulnerable, we can lay the groundwork for impactful, value-driven careers. Lead with vulnerability and see how your relationships evolve and grow stronger.

As young professionals, when we begin our journey, we start to think about what it means to lead oneself. What constitutes the kind of leaders we want to be? How must we approach difficult decision-making situations according to our inner beliefs? These were some questions that occupied most of my internal reflection throughout the semester exploring leadership and ethics. Through class discussions, personal experiences, case study articles, and all, I learned that ethical leadership involves not only doing the right thing but also creating trust and accountability in a shared commitment to values.

Among the most important lessons learned is that ethical leadership starts with self-awareness. Setting up core values sets a compass to guide a person’s decisions, especially under difficult situations. Personally, integrity turns out to be non-negotiable. As I discovered, leading with integrity also means bringing your actions into harmony with your values when it is inconvenient or uncomfortable. Among the class exercises, we reflected on what would happen if values collided with workplace pressures. The takeaway: ethical leaders who actually mean what they say and can back it up, end up building credibility and earning trust.

 A personal experience that underlined this lesson happened during a group project at my most recent summer internship. One of my teammates suggested that since our deadline was approaching fast, we would have to cut corners in some areas to get finished. As tempting as that sounded at the time, I knew that it would compromise the quality of our work. It was not easy to have that really upfront discussion about possible ways we could work differently, when most people wanted to cut corners. We managed to come up with a creative solution that allowed us to keep our hard work looking excellent and still meet our timeline. I suggested that we would have to stay extra time even though we were not getting paid for it, and we all agreed on that. That reaffirmed the importance of holding your ground against ethical principles, even under stressful situations.

 One important thing I learned about was empathy and its role in ethical leadership. We think ethics are very simple, black and white, but most real dilemmas today do not fall into this definition. Empathetic leaders are able to consider perspectives and needs of other people, therefore making them more capable of conflict resolution and the establishment of inclusiveness. Examples include case studies of workplace discrimination; how do empathetic leaders address such issues by active listening and advocating for fair practices? Learning this inspired me towards a people-leadership approach, given that ethics nearly always leads to complex decisions coming from different sides’ points of view.

 I learned, too, that ethical leadership is not just the leaders’ actions but how there should be an establishment of an ethical environment. Leaders create contexts for their organizations, and very small actions send rippling effects. We discussed how transparent communication and consistency in accountability create an atmosphere for ethical behavior to exist. I hope to be a leader in the financial setting. A client hands his life savings to me; therefore, there is no way to avoid ethical standards.

 For young professionals, creating ethical leadership seems to be a tall order, especially at the beginning of the career ladder. But this semester has taught me that ethical leadership is not a destination but a practice. It means making intentional choices, seeking continued evolution, and being open to learning from mistakes. Living one’s values, empathy, and accountability should suffice to lead others by example and inspire others to do so.

Foundation of Ethical Leadership

Reflecting on this semester, I recognize personal values influence effective leadership practices. New professionals need to adopt and reflect these values. Doing so helps build a strong foundation for ethical leadership.

Values are essential for the success of organizations. They are more important than just theories about how personal beliefs affect teamwork. While individual success matters, shared values like equality significantly impact a team’s overall performance. In my experience with group projects, teams that focus on cooperation and respect achieve better results than those that do not.

Effective leadership is and will always be ethical. Leaders who operate grounded in their values tend to cultivate trust, accountability, and inclusivity environments. I experienced this firsthand with a manager who exemplified ethical leadership by prioritizing transparency and integrity in his decision-making processes. This example inspired his team and cultivated a culture where all members felt empowered to express their perspectives.

The literature I examined underscored the criticality of aligning personal values with organizational objectives. Such alignment can enhance job satisfaction and overall performance metrics for emerging professionals. This class has helped inspire my creative contributions and enhanced my engagement.

Integrating personal values into leadership can be challenging. Sometimes, what an organization needs may conflict with a leader’s ethical beliefs. I learned that being resilient and sticking to your ethics is crucial in these situations. A leader who keeps their values during tough times shows strong character and sets a good example for others. This commitment to morality can inspire team members to maintain the same standards, helping to build a strong shared commitment to doing the right thing.

As emerging professionals embark on their leadership trajectories, cultivating a personal value system is paramount. By embracing ethical leadership principles, one can effectively inspire teams, enhance performance, and contribute to establishing a moral organizational culture. The insights gleaned from this semester reinforce the notion that leadership extends beyond authority and results; it fundamentally hinges on the values we uphold and the ethical frameworks we develop for ourselves and those we lead.

References

Glew, D. J. (2009). Personal values and performance in teams: An individual and team-level analysis. Small Group Research, 40(6), 670–693.

Loehr, A. (2014). How to live with purpose, identify your values and improve your leadership. Forbes.

Leadership is often celebrated for its vision and charisma, but what truly defines a great leader is their commitment to ethics. This semester, my journey exploring leadership through an ethical lens has taught me that ethical leadership is not just about following rules; it’s about standing firm for values, even when it’s uncomfortable or risky.

The story of Marshal Brain, a leader and my senior design professor, offers a profound example. Marshal, the founder of HowStuffWorks.com, spent his life empowering others through knowledge and innovation. Tragically, his unexpected passing revealed deeper ethical challenges that he faced within his professional environment—challenges that highlight the complexity of ethical leadership.

Marshal’s story surfaced allegations of retaliation after he raised ethical concerns about a department leader. According to the ethical decision-making framework from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, this situation exemplifies the intricate dilemmas leaders face when raising ethical concerns to their fellow peers.

The first step in the framework is identifying the ethical issues. Marshal raised several ethical concerns about Veena Misra, the head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and brought his concerns to her directly. Was Marshal’s decision to address wrongdoing in his department ethical? Absolutely. Ethical leadership often involves navigating choices that can harm or benefit various stakeholders unevenly. Marshal acted for the common good, but the response he faced raises questions about justice and fairness.

The next step asks us to get the facts. What Marshal may not have fully anticipated were the hidden dynamics and retaliatory measures against him. This highlights an essential leadership lesson: ethical decisions often require an awareness of unseen implications and consultation with allies who can help mitigate potential harm.

Ultimately, Marshal did not prepare to mitigate any potential harm. The result, his retirement was announced by the university on November 16th, 2024. When evaluating the actions that occurred. It is clear that Marshal acted with integrity, embodying the moral courage young leaders should aspire to hold their peers accountable. However, the retaliation he faced points to a systemic failure on the part of the Engineering department to ensure fairness for those raising ethical concerns. Through the Care Ethics Lens, one could argue that the decision-makers involved neglected the relationships and well-being of their colleagues.

Marshal Brain’s legacy is not just in the knowledge he shared but in the ethical example he set by speaking up against wrongdoing. His story reminds us that leadership is as much about character as it is about competency.

Leadership is more than a title it is a responsibility, a practice, a duty, and above all, a reflection of our core values. Over the past semester, I have learned that ethical leadership isn’t just a theoretical concept but rather a compass guiding every decision and interaction in our professional lives. As young professionals in the early stages of our careers, we often focus on climbing the corporate ladder, but what truly sets great leaders apart from others is their ability to stay grounded in values that inspire trust, respect, and growth.

One of the most impactful lessons that I have learned in this class is that leadership begins with self-awareness. A values driven leader must first identify their core beliefs and make sure their actions align with them and what they believe. This semester I have reflected on my own values and found: innovation, integrity, and the desire to make a meaningful impact on the world are my core leadership values. I realized that being an effective leader means applying these values for daily decisions even when it’s uncomfortable or not in my best interest.

Take Tyler McGrit, for example my coworker from Bosch Home Appliances someone I look up to because of his story. Tyler started on an assembly line and worked his way up to a data analyst role by leveraging his work ethic, perseverance, and commitment to continuous learning. His story shows that leadership isn’t tied to a position but to how you inspire those around you. His example taught me that leading ethically means showing humility, valuing growth, and maintaining authenticity no matter your role.

This course also highlighted that ethical leadership often involves making very tough choices. Whether navigating workplace conflicts or choosing between profit and principle, the most ethical path is always the least easiest option. We studied cases where leaders faced moral dilemmas, and the common thread among successful outcomes was their leaders unwavering commitment to transparency and fairness for all.

I faced a small but telling ethical decision in my internship at Bosch Home Appliances last summer. I was tasked with analyzing quality issues in our manufacturing process, and I uncovered a minor discrepancy that could have been overlooked to save time on the assembly line. There was a heating error where the dishwasher tubs get a very thin bitumen layer heated onto them, but multiple tubs where coming out with over melted bitumen that went unreported. Reporting it meant delaying the project slightly, but it was the right choice to ensure accuracy and quality of the tubs for our consumers. While it may not have been a groundbreaking decision, it reinforced the importance of doing what’s right over what’s easy a cornerstone of ethical leadership.

Leadership extends beyond personal decisions to, it’s about creating a culture where others feel empowered to act ethically too. This past summer, I was also inspired by Dr. Kytyr my boss during my internship in the Czech Republic this summer at the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Insitute. He is a leader who balances his roles as a researcher and educator and does so extremely well due to his ethical foundation and values. He does this by promoting innovation, accountability, and collaboration, resulting in a cultivated a culture where his team thrives. His leadership style reminded me that the best leaders amplify others strengths and encourage ethical behavior by modeling it themselves.

As we start on our careers, the pressure to perform and achieve can sometimes tempt us to cut corners or corupt our values and change our beliefs. But what I have learned is that success built on shaky ethical foundations is never sustainable and always has conflicts . The leaders who leave a lasting impact are those who remain true to their principles and prioritize people over profits no matter what.

To my fellow peers leadership is a journey, not a destination. Take the time to define your values, seek out mentors who embody ethical leadership, and never shy away from making the hard but right decisions. Whether you’re leading a team of one or one hundred, the principles you uphold today will shape the legacy you leave tomorrow.
Leadership is ultimately about more than achieving goals and not only that but also it’s about how we achieve them. So let’s strive to lead with purpose, integrity, and a commitment to making our workplaces, industries, and communities better for those who follow in our steps by always taking an ethical first step in everything we do.

This post is going to be a text to self and the article I’m using is “Core Values List with 500 Examples” by Threads Culture. I’m going to give 5 core values I have as a leader that I use in my daily life which is trustworthy, understanding, selfless, responsibility and independence. Let’s start with being trustworthy, I’ve always prided myself on making sure people can trust me whether that’s with my basketball team and coaches trusting that I do the right thing and bring effort everyday, my family, friendships or relationships. As a leader, I feel that being understanding is huge because being able to understand why someone is feeling a a certain way and being able to change based on the situation can help build the relationships you have with people that are most important to you and being a leader. Being selfless as a leader can be a gift and a curse, I always used to put everyone and their feelings before mine to a fault, but it’s a gift when you learn when to be selfless and when to be selfish. Responsibility has been a part of my life since I was young, I’m the oldest of 6 and I always have different responsibilities and making sure I’m being that example for them. I have a responsibility to my team to bring effort day in and day out and being able to lead by example and taking responsibility for actions in friendships and relationships. I’m an independent woman, but I’ve had to learn how to let people help me when I need it most. These 5 core values are why I’m the leader I am today.

In this post I will be doing a text to world, and the article is called “Ex-Uber engineer accuses tech company of gaslighting female employees, defending workplace harassment” by Nicole Hensley. It’s about how HR and management were getting emails from multiple women on how this male manager was showing inappropriate behavior and interactions with his employees that are female and the company was gaslighting these women and saying that they’re the problem or they should just drop it. As Susan Fowler said on the company, “Some of the women even had stories about reporting the exact same manager I had reported, and had reported inappropriate interactions with him long before I had even joined the company,” Fowler wrote. “It became obvious that both HR and management had been lying about this being “his first offense”, and it certainly wasn’t his last.” This reminds of how there were women in the sports broadcasting/ journalism field and how they were treated off camera. In a male dominated field such as sports broadcasting/ journalism, a lot of these women were just seen as Barbies on set and not for who they are and what they do. They have gotten sexualized or even sexually harassed and a lot of them thought it. was normal because it’ll be their way of reaching their goals. So in comparing both of these situations are very similar to each other and even other situations dealing with women in a male dominated field and how these companies ignore it.

In this post I’ll be using the article, “Playing favorites? Hospital boards, donors get COVID shots” by  Russ Bynum, Michelle R. Smith and Rachel La Corte. This will be a text to world. In this article, it talks about how when Covid-19 broke out, that hospital board members, donors and trustees had early access to the vaccines. In summary of what the article talks about, “It’s a reminder that if you’re rich, well-connected and know how to work the system, you can get access that others can’t,” Caplan said. “Here it is, right in our face, when it comes to vaccinations.” I would like to relate to how rich people or anyone connected to bigger people gets advantages that others can’t get in another real world situation. For example, what happened during the past couple of months of how Trump was going to do tax cuts for the rich and how it may affect those that aren’t as rich and it’ll on be beneficial for the rich. Trump’s tax cuts only will be in affect for billionaires and yes there’s not a lot of them, but the principle behind it is that it’s not helping the American people or those that need that the most. In comparison to article, those that are rich and that are connected to someone of higher power gets these advantages that most can’t and can affect the livelihood of others because they aren’t billionaires. So, it’s pretty normal for people to that are rich or that have connections to have better advantages than those that need it most.

MindTools’s essay What Are Your Values presents a useful approach to develop personal values by means of self-reflection and prioritizing. This is a necessary phase in the process of matching choices and behavior with basic ideals of one’s identity. Staub’s book “Reconciliation After Genocide, Mass Killing, or Intractable Conflict” argues, “Understanding the roots of our values can help us create a foundation for lasting peace” (Staub, 2024, page 134). This method fits this line of thinking. It reflects the need of society awareness in the process of conflict resolution, in which case the clarity of values takes front stage. This article reminded me of a time I had to choose between two universities with scholarships. One of the institutions presented me a higher pay, while the other more suited my goals and interests in the field of teaching. Thinking back on my basic value—that of helping to contribute to significant work—helps me to make the proper decision. This approach ranks values in order to solve problems, much as the one detailed in the article. The material of the work is in line with the way Americans banded together following the September 11 attacks. Many people assessed their national and personal values—which included things like unity, freedom, and resilience—for the sake of negotiating the crisis. Communities came together, stressing the need of helping those who were affected. Identifying one’s values and acting in line with those values not only helps one’s own life but also shows how it is possible for shared values to control group reactions during trying conditions. This reflects the idea presented in the essay, which is to match actions with ideals.

https://www.mindtools.com/a5eygum/what-are-your-values