Aspiring to become a business leader?
Perhaps you’ve recently completed a qualification in business – like a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration online, for example – and you’re ready to take the next step in your pursuit of business leadership.
But there’s a crucial element of business you may not have considered the importance of – ethics. In truth, being an ethical, value-driven business leader – one who acts with integrity and is guided by their morals – will get you far. Cultivating a strong social conscience is equally important: when you’re at the top, society will be looking at you to lead by example.
Here’s more on the importance of ethics in business, as well as how to become an ethically-driven leader.
Trust, Honesty and Integrity: The Cornerstones of Ethical Businesses
What makes a business ethical? In essence, it comes down to having a degree of corporate social responsibility. But what does this mean?
Corporate social responsibility (or CSR, for short) refers to a company’s commitment to do good. CSR initiatives can be undertaken to address a variety of different social agendas, such as:
Environmental Consciousness
An environmentally-conscious company will make concerted efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint to minimise their impact on the environment.
Achieving this goal involves implementing eco-friendly measures in the daily operations of the business – when manufacturing and transporting products, for example, as well as disposing of waste and recycling, and also, when utilising energy resources such as gas and electricity.
Charitable and Philanthropic Endeavours
Contributing to charity as a business is not just a tax offset. It also does wonders for a company’s reputation and image as a socially responsible business.
The best part? A company can donate to a charity of their choosing – particularly one that aligns with the core values of the business, and also, supports the image the business is aiming to reflect externally.
Ethical Manufacturing, Production and Labour Sourcing
Being an ethical business means doing right by the labour workforce. This means sourcing labour via socially responsible means.
Above all, a business must avoid exploiting cheap labour – particularly child labour and labour sourced from sweatshop environments – if they want to be considered an ethically responsible company.
Openness, Transparency and Honesty – Both with Internal Stakeholders and the Wider Community
For a company to be considered socially responsible, they also must be transparent in their business dealings. Nothing screams dodgy like secretive, undercover operations.
But the truth? A business is only as ethical as its leaders. As such – ethical, trustworthy and socially responsible behaviour must be modelled from the top.
The 5 Ps of Ethical Power: How They Influence Business Ethics
When it comes to leading ethically, five areas in particular need to be considered. Commonly referred to as the ‘5 Ps of ethical power’, these areas of consideration include:
- Purpose
- Pride
- Patience
- Persistence
- Perspective
If a business leader takes each of these aspects into consideration, they can use them to their advantage to become a socially responsible force in the business world.
These elements work most effectively, of course, when combined with very specific personal attributes that must be cultivated to become an ethical, value-driven leader.
Being an Ethical Business Leader: The Key Attributes of Trustworthy Leaders
Care about leading ethically? These are the key attributes of an ethical leader:
Integrity
Integrity is innate. If we want to be ethical leaders, we need to consider our core values – the things that give us our integrity – in all of our actions.
Acting with integrity allows us to follow our moral compass and helps us make ethical decisions, especially in business.
Transparency
Honesty is always the best policy, especially when it comes to ethical leadership. Being open and transparent is central to acting as ethically-driven leaders.
Fairness
An ethical leader is fair. They value justice and equal opportunity. As such, they will lead by example, treating others with the same respect they expect to receive from them.
Accountability
Everyone makes mistakes – even business leaders. But the key to resolving an error is taking ownership of the mistake you’ve made. By owning our mistakes, we can often regain the trust and respect of others – even when we have done wrong.
We can’t always get it right – but by being accountable, responsible, and learning valuable lessons from our oversights, we can become even stronger, more ethical leaders.
