Wow. Your post helps me understand a new relationship among ethics, foresight, and leadership. I think you're warning us of a subtle, important rationalization that could be added to Josephson's list:
"Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, or at least in the short run."
Even when a decision makes sense in the moment or for the short run, a leader should still be held accountable if he or she ignores longer term issues.
Leadership by definition usually includes "vision." Right? "Vision" demands that we think through the longer term consequences. It can be unethical for a leader to ignore long term consequences, i.e., unethical not to use a leader's foresight as best as possible under the circumstance.
(This probably is even more critical for servant leaders, due to their direct and trusted relationship with those served.)
Great post!
I think leadership programs should include a course on ethics and morality. If a program produces leaders and informs them of skills of a leader, then the program must be responsible in giving a true North in regards to ethics and morality. How embarrassing it will be when a program without a an ethics course produces the next Fastow or K-Lay.
Chris,
I think that failure to use vision, to be aware of actions, is one of the biggested reasons leadership fails.
JK,
Thanks for the comments. Ethics and morality need to be part of all of our education programs.
Tom
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