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Ethical Challenges of Leadership (Chapter 1 (The Leader's Light or…

- - - - The BAD
        
        Those who hoard power are likely to hoard status and wealth, and take it away from employees
        
        Unequal distribution of wealth in America
        
        The link between power and privilege means that abuse of one generally leads to the abuse of the other
        
        privilege is a significant ethical burden associated with leadership
        
        Sharing of power prevents power abuse and improves organisational performance
        
        the greater the leaders powers, the greater the privilege, or rewards, they receive
      - The GOOD
        
        The executive has some legitimate secrecy needs, and congressional oversight in some cases is designed less to enlighten than to harass or to score cheap political points
- - - - Insecurity
        
        Leaders are often deeply insecure people who mask their inner doubts through extroversion and by tying their identity to their roles as leaders. They use followers to serve their selfish needs.
      - Battleground Mentality
        
        Leaders use military images when carrying out their tasks (“wins”, “losses”, “allies”, “enemies”, “doing battle”, etc) with the competition. The militaristic approach can be counterproductive, and more often than not cooperation is more productive than competition
      - Functional Atheism
        
        A leader’s belief that she or he has the ultimate responsibility for everything that happens in a group or organization. Symptoms include high stress, broken relationships with families, workaholism, burnout, and mindless activity.
      - Fear
        
        Fear of chaos drives many leaders to stifle dissent and innovation. They emphasize rules and procedures instead of creativity and consolidate their power instead of sharing it with followers
      - Denying Death
        
        Our culture as a whole denies the reality of death, and leaders in particular don’t want to face the fact that projects and programs should die if they’re no longer useful. Leaders also deny death through their fear of negative evaluation and public failure.
      - Evil
        
        Some people seem driven by a force more powerful than anxiety or fear (jealousy, envy, rage, evil, etc).
    - - A great deal of destructive leadership behavior is driven by self-centeredness, which manifests itself through pride, greed, and narcissism
      - They lack empathy for others
      - Their focus is on defending their turf and maintaining their status
      - Ego-driven leaders ignore creative ideas and valuable data
    - - Identifying dysfunctional motivations is a good first step in explaining the shadow side of leadership
      - Well-meaning, well-adjusted leaders can also cast shadows
      - Moral reasoning, though focused on issues of right and wrong
      - Decision Making Biases
      - Theories About How the World Operates
      - Ignoring low-probability events even when they could have serious consequences later.
      - Limiting the search for stakeholders and thus overlooking the needs of important groups.
      - Ignoring the possibility that the public will find out about an action.
      - Discounting the future by putting immediate needs ahead of long-term goals
      - Ignoring the possibility that the public will find out about an action
    - - Moral imagination
        
        sensitivity to moral issues and options—is the key to ethical behavior
        
        Leaders fail to exercise moral imagination in large part because they are victims of their typical mental models or scripts
        
        Scripts are mental shortcuts that enable decision makers to process data rapidly in order to make quick choices. Our scripts can unfortunately leave out the ethical dimension of a situation.
        
        Hyperactive moral imagination can create false scenarios when leaders and followers focus on creativity at the expense of ethical common sense
    - - Leaders may unintentionally cast shadows because they lack the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience
      - Its possible to blunder into good ethical choices, but it’s far more likely that we’ll make wise decisions when we are guided by some widely used ethical principles and standards
      - Making and implementing ethical decisions take both critical thinking and communication skills
      - We need first-hand experience that comes from tackling real-life leadership dilemmas