PERSONAL ETHICAL THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND CONDUCT
No matter how you cut it or define it, all proven leadership involves good and proper ethical thoughts, speech, and activities by and between individuals or groups of people. Whenever people are involved in any equation for success or failure, interpersonal relationships always have to come into play. The foundational cornerstone of all good and effective interpersonal relationships is that they are always based and built upon honesty and integrity by and between the parties involved.
Dishonesty, lack of integrity, deceit, and untruths are the things that comprise no ethical character among human beings. It is impossible to build a good and lasting personal relationship with other people who lack good moral character and personal ethics.
All real leadership is nothing more than having good and positive influence upon another person or group of people.
Honesty and integrity anchors all good personal relationships that last and keep contributing to the overall primary cause and purpose of the whole organization. When people are interconnected with a common cause and are harmoniously working toward the accomplishment of their individual goals, they then all become an integral part of the overall organization’s dreams and goals. Each individual’s personal contribution when completed, folds into an important part of the over-arching dream. Eventually each contributor will become a critically important part of the entire organization’s final accomplishment. All of this type activity falls under the general definition of teamwork. One is simply too small of a number with which to achieve any kind of significant success. It takes teamwork to make the dream work. And in order for a good quality team to be ably put together and become a functioning group, high quality leadership is required to be guiding the human efforts actively being expended. Well lead teams always produce more and better quality results than do poorly lead teams. Show me the real leader and I will tell you all about the team that is performing and what they will most probably achieve.
The very best way to learn what good moral character and personal ethics are all about is not from books or lectures, but rather from firsthand personal experience, and from observation of other great leaders of people.
A story please……….
The CEO of a major West Coast manufacturing firm once related a true story about himself regarding how he personally learned what the real meaning of ethics was and how it applied to everything a true leader does as he or she performs their duties of leading an organization of people to greater levels of personal performance and increasing success. He stated that there were really two separate and distinct episodes in his life that taught him about personal ethics.
The first occurred when he was a young child. He had stolen a comic book from the magazine rack of a local store and had been caught stealing the book by his mother. She immediately took him back to the store and ordered him to return the item–and to sweep the store floors under the supervision of the store owner until he had earned enough to cover the cost of the book and pay back the owner, thereby giving him the right to personally claim the comic book as his own. He had learned from this experience that a person’s actions have consequences that must be faced.
The second incident came at the end of a summer job at a factory. His co-workers surprised him with a going-away party with gifts that he could use when he returned to college–journals, notebooks, writing utensils, a hand calculator, etc. Filled as he was with joy and thanksgiving shown him by his friends, his gratitude ran aground when he saw that all the gifts had been stolen from the company for whom they all worked. It seemed that his co-workers simply felt that they were entitled to take them. When he discovered the real source of the gifts, he thanked is co-workers–but refused the gifts.
These two insights–taking personal responsibility for one’s actions and maintaining integrity in spite of opposition–later motivated this executive to promote a special sense of ownership in the people who worked for him. Sharing ownership in the company did not pertain to its materials and products–it meant sharing the work, pride, and profits. It is a tough lesson to teach to other people, but a very worthy one.
There are very definite and specific lessons to be learned if you have seriously decided to become personally successful. Success is not measured in financial terms alone. There is much more to being successful than just money. The goal to becoming and then enjoying the success that you have created and earned is to first help other people surrounding you to achieve higher levels of success in their own lives along with you.
It has been rightly stated, for those with ears that listen, hear, and then employ what they have learned, that the wisest and most successful of those folks aspiring to become true leaders of other people are always the ones who surround themselves with other great people who have good ideas, and lots of healthy personal experience. They then sift through those expressed ideas, ponder them well, and then use the ones that they personally prefer. You don’t have to have all the good ideas in the world. There are lots of other good people on this earth who also can think for themselves and articulate good and valuable thoughts and ideas.
Whenever you hear about good ideas that you believe in, that is a good sign and confirms to you that what you are doing is a good and worthy effort and will help other people to have a better life and lifestyle.
Life and the living of it does not always have to be so hard.
You can have anything in life that you want…IF…you are first willing to help enough other people get what they want.
Leaders Gotta Lead………