As a leader, how often do you face ethical dilemmas?
If you’re anything like the great leaders and managers I work with, morality and ethics are a daily challenge. As professionals, they rely on rules, regulations, and policies. Most, if not all, have made a promise to “not knowingly do harm.”
Of course, this is not always an easy promise to keep. After all, life and business are rarely simple; there is a lot of gray between right and wrong. But as Peter Drucker wrote in The Essential Drucker, “Its very modesty and self-constraint make it the right rule for the ethics that managers need, the ethics of responsibility.”
Rising to the Challenge of Ethical Dilemmas
The way I see it, there are two major approaches philosophers use to address an ethical dilemma:
- Focus on the practical consequences of what we do. This argues “no harm, no foul.”
- Focus on the actions themselves, and the “rightness” of the action alone. This argues that some actions are simply wrong in and of themselves.
When this topic comes up in my coaching conversations, we talk about a simple, yet effective three-step process for solving ethical dilemmas.
- Analyze the consequences. Explore all aspects by answering the following questions:
Who will be helped by what I do?
Who will be harmed by what I do?
What is the benefit, and how beneficial? (i.e. minimal, incremental, extremely; short-term and/or long-term)
What is the harm, and how harmful? (i.e. minimal, incremental, extremely; short-term and/or long-term)
- Analyze the actions. Without thinking about the consequences, consider all of the options from a different perspective. Explore all options by answering these questions:
How do the actions measure up against moral principles like honesty, fairness, equality, respecting the dignity of others, and people’s rights?
Do any of the actions “cross the line?”
If there’s a conflict between principles or between the rights of different people involved, is there a way to see one principle as more important than the others?
Which option offers actions that are least problematic?
- Make a decision. Consider the answers from steps one and two, and make a decision.
Moral and ethical leadership today require great courage, wisdom, and the right framework to make decisions. And, while we are doing better in many aspects, there is always room for improvement.
What do you think? How often do you face ethical dilemmas? I’d love to hear from you. I can be reached here, on LinkedIn, or give me a call: 561-582-6060.
