Please respond to 2 classmates’s discussions- Ethnical Leadership

1. Jennifer.
According to Northouse (2018), ethical leadership refers to the what leaders do and who they are, which translates into the nature of the leaders behaviors and virtuousness. Ethical leadership holds within it five main components, including respecting others, serving others, being just, being honest, and building community. When leaders respect others, they view others with a sense of worth, value each persons differences, and give credibility to the ideas of others. Serving others can be aligned with altruism and should place the welfare of others at the top of their list of importances, even above the leaders own welfare, via providing empathy and listening to followers in all available instances. Justness is seen through leaders that make it a high priority to treat others in an unwaveringly equal manner, with fairness being at the forefront of decision-making. Being just removes favoritism from the list of potential leadership pitfalls. Honesty harkens to being truthful, no matter the circumstances, while also knowing the line in terms of appropriate self-disclosure. When leaders are dishonest, they are more likely to lose the trust of their followers. Finally, building community speaks to considering the specific purposes of each individual within ones group and using this to attend to the interests of overall cultures and communities. This can translate to many individuals, regardless of individual attributes, working toward a common goal.

While all of the aforementioned facets are extremely important, the two that seem to be most important to me are respect and honesty. Treating others with respect is a concept that can be applied in any situation and is highlighted with even more importance in terms of leadership roles. Warrick (2016) discusses how leaders should treat their followers as an end, not the means to obtain an end; in doing so, the leader respects the follower for their individual contribution. I have had multiple positions by history in which it felt as though my leader did not have any modicum of respect for their followers as an end, which resulted in completely destroying not only the followers morale but also the teams culture. The leaders were quick to remind the followers that they were easily replacable and that they were meant to be worker bees who essentially kept their mouths shut and did what they were told. They were also various displays of leadership being dishonest, many of which included leaders purely lying when confronted on their behavior when issues were escalated through the management chain. They would also lie about metrics, a farce of which could only last as long as someone else did not run reports. From this combination of lack of respect and honesty, it goes without saying that the followers in no way trusted their leaders nor were they motivated to follow their leaders. It was a situation in which the followers simply had to wait for someone else to notice and take disciplinary action against the leader for the mistreatment of their followers. Luckily, I am now in a situation where the leaders, both middle and upper management, are very respectful and honest with their employees. Whether they have positive or negative things to report, they do not shy away from providing information. They also actively work to ensure that a respectful workplace culture is in effect at all times. This distinctly different climate lends to having followers of all levels who are willing to go above and beyond for their leaders to achieve both team and organizational goals.

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership theory and practice (8th ed.). SAGE.
Warrick, D. D. (2016). Leadership: A high impact approach. Lachina Publishing Services.

2. Julia.
Northouse (2018) offers five principles of ethical leadership: respect others, serve others, show justice, be honest, and build community. To respect others, a leader must listen to understand and and treat their ideas, works, and concerns as valuable commodities (Northouse, 2018). Leaders who seek to serve others may act in a variety of ways, but all seek to create something in the interest of the greater good (Northouse, 2018). Just leaders bring fairness and equity to play in their interactions, ensuring all parties they engage with receive consistent and fair treatment (Northouse, 2018). Honesty is the best policy is a truism that every child learns, and it is even more essential in our leaders (Northouse, 2018). The idea of building community is really a leaders focus on creating something larger than themselves, where shared vision and goals create a common good that all team members may embrace (Northouse, 2018).

I would classify the top two criteria for leaders are to respect others and to build community. If a leader seeks to do these two things consistently, they will likely be engaging in the other principles and they will be using their powers for the good of the group. Last year, I worked regularly with a manager who generally liked to talk about himself, his ideas, his past, and how he has done many wonderful things for this team member or that one. This was true whether it was a team meeting, a client meeting, or a one-on-one with his directs. If he had a vision, it only lasted from one conversation to the next. The last person he spoke to was always right, so inevitably the last idea discussed before go time was the one that stood though the person who needed to know that was rarely included in the conversation.

If pressed about the changes that occurred without disclosure, the manager would often dissemble and act like the final option he had agreed to was the original choice selected by the team. When team members began to put information in writing to follow up with him, he would delay and ignore any requests for updates, which created a number of issues with business partners who were waiting for the details. This managers failure to respect others and work to build a community has damaged his relationships in a number of areas. Business partners now regularly bypass the manager and go to his directs in order to get things accomplished. This situation creates friction for his team members who also leaders and business partners. They are caught in a position where honesty would damage the communities they are building.

References
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership theory and practice (8th ed.). SAGE.

Ethical Leadership [WLO: 2] [CLOs: 2, 5].

Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Chapter 13 in the course textbook, Leadership: Theory and Practice.
Define and describe the principles of ethical leadership. Which two of the five principles covered in Chapter 16 do you think are the most important, and why? Discuss this in the context of a specific example, either from your own professional experience, or from one of the case studies in Chapter 13 of the course textbook.

Guided Response: Respond to at least two other peers posts regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. Remember to include active scholarship in these two replies to substantiate your points and to properly cite your sources. Please refer to APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) by Ashford Universitys Writing Center for information on citing sources. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon in your classroom for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.