Leading in Context

OCTOBER 23, 2024

This complexity and uncertainty combine to create a “murky uncertainty” that may keep people from giving us their best, most ethical performance. By Linda Fisher Thornton Workplace issues are complex and opinions vary about the right thing to do in challenging situations.

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Leading in Context

JULY 21, 2021

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leadership isn't something we can ever say we've fully accomplished. It's not about arriving at any particular place, or about achieving a certain level of knowledge.

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Leading in Context

JUNE 26, 2024

Many global factors are driving changes in ethical leadership expectations, and in high-stakes times, how we handle ethical leadership development can make or break our success. By Linda Fisher Thornton We need to get leadership right because so much depends on it.

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Leading in Context

DECEMBER 7, 2022

Here are 3 ways to Advance Ethics that also improve the impact of your organization and your leadership. By Linda Fisher Thornton The first post in this series addressed ACCOUNTABILITY. In this second post we’ll take a look at IMPACT.

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Leading in Context

MAY 1, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton Developing competent ethical leaders can be a huge challenge. We fill many different roles in our organizations, industries and communities. Each role we play and each decision we face has different ethical implications. Ethical competence is definitely not something that “just happens.”

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Leading in Context

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

They struggle to deal with uncertainty and complexity and sometimes the most ethical choices are not obvious. In this kind of environment, we can’t assume that things are going well even when there are no lawsuits or imminent ethical crises. What we need to do is build an ethical workplace that will discourage ethical problems.

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Leading in Context

JUNE 2, 2021

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leadership development is the ongoing process of guiding leaders to become ethical people and ethical leaders. This is the human development that happens over time that brings leaders to the point of being able to handle what the world throws at them using ethical thinking and action.

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Leading in Context

OCTOBER 2, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton Taking the ethical path and showing others the way does not just involve the things leaders do that we can observe. Ethical leaders seek shared value. It also involves the hidden things they do, the mental work they do to make good decisions that add value for others and not just themselves.

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Leading in Context

JULY 24, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leaders are not easily pulled off course – they stay focused on the values that are important to good leadership. They realize that they are influencing others, and they perceive that as both a privilege and a responsibility.

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Leading in Context

DECEMBER 28, 2022

By Linda Fisher Thornton The focus of this week’s post is on Ways to Inspire Leaders to Lead With Positive Ethical Values. Here are 3 ways to inspire leaders to reach for positive values – that also help you “do good” in your organization, community and world. .

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Leading in Context

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

By Linda Fisher Thornton In Part 1 of this series on Recognizing Ethical Issues, I addressed the gaps in our thinking that require us to develop an ethical alert system. In Part 3, I dug into the importance of ethical awareness as the basis for ethical decision making.

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Leading in Context

JUNE 9, 2021

By Linda Fisher Thornton Developing ethical leaders and building ethical cultures have become critical business priorities. As if that weren't already challenging enough, managing ethics well also requires systems thinking and a broad understanding of ethical responsibilities.

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Leading in Context

DECEMBER 14, 2022

This week's four ways to advance ethics in your organization focus on MANAGING THE SYSTEM. By Linda Fisher Thornton The first post in this series addressed ACCOUNTABILITY. The second asked you to evaluate your IMPACT.

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Leading in Context

APRIL 28, 2021

By Linda Fisher Thornton Developing an "ethical self" is important for good citizenship and good leadership. There's more to developing and maintaining an ethical self than trying to make good choices. Making ethical choices isn't easy, and while we're struggling, our brains are actually working against us.

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Leading in Context

MAY 17, 2023

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leadership is about much more than making good decisions and abiding by laws and regulations. One of the elements of ethical leadership that may be overlooked when we view ethics using a “legal lens” is supporting and developing the potential of the people we lead.

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Leading in Context

JUNE 28, 2023

This complexity and uncertainty combine to create a "murky uncertainty" that may keep people from giving us their best, most ethical performance. Leaders may intend to create an ethical culture, but may still have difficulty getting past the murky uncertainty about what ethics means.

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Leading in Context

JUNE 19, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical values can drive positive business results, but only if leaders continually learn and apply better leadership, and stretch to grow. With the bar for expected leadership set so high, it will be a continual career-long stretch for our leaders.

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Leading in Context

JUNE 5, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton In Part 1 of this series "Ethical Values Are Good For Business" I shared the importance of clearing up the confusion employees have in balancing ethical values with bottom line profitability. In Part 2, we looked at the importance of aligning strategy with the organization's values.

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Leading in Context

JUNE 12, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical values are good for business, but only if you keep up as times change. Right now, expectations are high and Ibelieve that values-based leadership is gaining momentum. Recently I was asked to explain why I think so, and I thought I would share my answer in today’s blog post.

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Leading in Context

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

By Linda Fisher Thornton How well is your organization navigating the ethical pitfalls of the working world? Why is it so hard to navigate ethical minefields now? If you're finding it to be a major challenge right now, you're not alone. There is currently a "toxic soup" of factors at play.

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Leading in Context

APRIL 3, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leadership learning is an issue that is gaining attention. Expectations of “good leadership” are increasing and leaders and organizations are scrambling to keep up.

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Leading in Context

MAY 29, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton In Part 1 of this series "Ethical Values Are Good For Business" I shared the importance of clearing up the confusion employees have in balancing ethical values with bottom line profitability. In Part 2, we looked at the importance of aligning strategy with the organization's values.

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Leading in Context

MARCH 8, 2023

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethics has a compounding effect on culture, and our leadership choices determine whether that effect will be positive or negative. Being diligent about ethics in every decision brings the culture ethics dividends. Being careless about ethics brings ethics penalties.

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Leading in Context

MARCH 22, 2023

By Linda Fisher Thornton Leaders are in a unique position to make ethics a priority through their everyday actions, but simply modeling ethics isn’t nearly enough.

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Lead from Within

APRIL 26, 2024

As an executive leadership coach, I advise my clients on various aspects of leadership, and one topic that has been gaining increasing importance in today’s rapidly evolving business is the role of ethics in artificial intelligence (AI).

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Leading in Context

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Respecting these (sometimes clear, sometimes hazy) boundaries is an important part of today’s ethical leadership. The 5 phrases below signal that the speaker is ignoring an important ethical boundary: By Linda Fisher Thornton Boundaries can be simply described as lines that we don’t cross when doing business.

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Leading in Context

SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

By Linda Fisher Thornton Who is accountable for ethical artificial intelligence? How do you build accountability into your organization's use of AI? I was recently invited to answer those questions in a guest blog post published on the EDUCAUSE Professional Development Commons and EDUCAUSE Review.

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Leading in Context

MAY 19, 2021

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leaders can't really "control" organizations, but there are specific things they can do to bring out the best in others and teams to move the organization forward. Here are five things ethical leaders can and should control to have a positive impact on the organizations they lead.

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Leading in Context

MAY 31, 2023

If leaders don’t seem to care, that numbs the organization’s culture, disabling the natural systems that would prevent and identify ethical risks. In addition to caring about what happens in our own careers, we must CARE about people, about their success, and about creating a positive work environment.

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Leading in Context

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

By Linda Fisher Thornton After I published “Prevention or Cure: Your Choice” about reducing ethical risk and creating a positive culture a reader asked for more information about the business case for prevention.

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Leading in Context

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical awareness may have been considered private in the past, but it has become easier to observe in a society that is always socially connected.

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Leading in Context

JULY 19, 2023

By Linda Fisher Thornton Preparing leaders for ethical leadership is a long-term process. For example, what message are we sending when we separate ethics training from other leadership training? It requires careful thought about the messages we are sending.

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Leading in Context

OCTOBER 28, 2020

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethics is fundamentally about acting beyond our own self-interests. Can we be ethical without considering others and acting in ways that benefit them?

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Leading in Context

MAY 22, 2024

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical values are good for business, but only when values and strategy align. Consumers are seeking brands that support well-being, sustainability, and social justice, realizing that these brands are more likely to have the best interests of consumers and society at heart.

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Leading in Context

MAY 24, 2023

By Linda Fisher Thornton Using an ethics of care changes how we think and act as leaders. It helps us remember that each person is important and that treating each other with care is part of our shared human experience.

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Leading in Context

AUGUST 2, 2023

By Linda Fisher Thornton Welcome to Part 1 in the series “Ethical Thinking and Decision Making for Leaders.” Welcome to Part 1 in the series “Ethical Thinking and Decision Making for Leaders.” Ethical decision-making is not simply a task.

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Leading in Context

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

By Linda Fisher Thornton In part 3 of this series, I am sharing a clip from my recent talk at the Saint Anselm Center for Ethics in Society that answers the question "What happens when there is a serious conflict between two ethical values?"

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