Open-Heartedness

Open-Heartedness

Leaders know what they value. They also recognize the importance of ethical behavior. The best leaders exhibit both their values and their ethics in their leadership style and actions. A leader’s leadership ethics and values should be visible because they live them in their actions.

A lack of trust is a problem in many workplaces. If leaders never identify their values in these workplaces, the mistrust is understandable. People don't know what they can expect. If leaders have identified and shared their values, living the values daily, visibly will create trust within the organization.

Ciulla (2004) suggested that we must have a rich and energetic lifestyle. Leaders must work within a balance and not be viewed as emotionally out of control. Ethical leadership starts at the top. If it is not right at the top, it is never going to be right at the bottom, or anywhere in between. Leaders may be born and not made, but ethics and ethical tenets of leadership training remain an undisputable necessity for every person assigned to positions requiring leadership and command responsibilities.

For example, the loss of trust and open heartedness complicates the President’s efforts to rebuild his standing with the public. His job approval rating remains at his all-time low. Honesty is a huge issue because even people who disagreed with his policies respected his integrity. Leaders must also motivate and inspire employees by showing that they care.

When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. Weston (2001) stated that it takes an open mind to learn and grow. The truest and best leaders were those who lead from the heart and who followed their own values. Leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Jesse Jackson. Leaders like Andrew Carnegie and even Bill Gates. They had a vision and were unafraid to follow that vision in accordance with their own spiritual, moral, and personal beliefs, despite intense opposition, rejection, failure, and even personal hardship.

True leaders are one who maintain an uncompromising adherence to an internalized, but otherwise generally accepted code of moral values; who adheres to utter sincerity, honesty, and candor in all communication; and who avoids deception, expediency, artificiality, or shallowness of any kind in all situations. Ciulla (2004) states that morally sensitive leaders are the essential feature of any good organization.

References

Ciulla, J. B. (Ed.). (2004). Ethics: The heart of leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Weston, A. (2001). A 21st century ethical toolbox. New York: Oxford University Press.