Leadership and Personal Values

1. Leadership and Personal Values Avimanyu Datta, College of Business, Washington State University

2. Introduction • Benjamin Franklin formed the Junto • Goals were community fellowship and service • Character was a concern • His values were: • Temperance • Order • Resoluteness • Industry • Sincerity • Justice • Moderation • Cleanliness • Humility

3. Introduction • Some organizations view values as a requirement for success • Johnson & Johnson CEO James Burke took Tylenol off the market after seven people died during poisoning events • Results of a study of the financial performance of companies with written value statements: • Net income increased by a factor of 23 during a period when the GNP grow by a factor of 2.5

4. Values • Values are a social glue • They provide structure and stability for people with diverse backgrounds • Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, sees management values as a source of corporate identity • Values provide guidance for members who are independent decision makers

5. Values • Values: • Can mask hypocrisy • Must enter into daily practices of the organization • Must reflect enduring commitments • Leaders must: • Examine their own value systems • Put good intentions into actionsthat others can witness

6. Values • Things that reduce the character and strength of the organization: • Unclear values • Failure to enforce the values • Lack of agreement on core values • Author Leon Wieseltierwrote: • The problem with society is that people believe in too much • Much is too easily acquired and too thoughtlessly held

7. When to Clarify or Reinforce Values • Red flags: • Members lack understanding about how they should behave as they attempt to meet goals • Different individuals and groups have different value systems • Top leaders send mixed messages about what is important • Day-to-day life is disorganized • Members complain about the organization • The organization has values, but does not practice them

8. Values • Management author Peter Drucker states: • Each organization has a value system influenced by its task • Health is the goal in every hospital in the world • For an organization to perform at its highest level: • Leaders must believe that what the organization does has value to people and society

9. Values • In A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas That Helped Build IBM, Thomas Watson, Jr. explains the importance of values: • To survive and achieve success, an organization must have a sound set of values • Leaders must adhere to those values • To meet challenges, organizations must be able to change everything about itself • Be open to change, but always remain true to core values

10. Values • Watson also said that IBM was successful because of three core values: • Respecting the individual • Giving the best customer service • Performing every job with excellence

11. Values and the Importance of Courage • Values in the a workplace: • Honesty • Respect • Service • Excellence • Integrity

12. Values and the Importance of Courage • When people define character: • What they say is important • What they do is more important • What they sacrifice for is most important • In its highest form, character is based on a value system that is known, cherished, stated, lived, and lived habitually • The highest form of living by one’s values is caring to the point of personal sacrifice

13. Values and the Importance of Courage • Character and leading by values require courage: • Philosopher-psychologist Rollo May explains the importance of courage: • Courage is the foundation that underlies and gives reality to all other virtues and values • Without courage, love pales into dependency and fidelity becomes conformism • “Courage” comes from the French word coeur meaning “heart” • It makes possible all the psychological virtues

14. Values and the Importance of Courage • Leadership situations are characterized by: • Ambiguity • Uncertainty • Danger • Leaders must act in spite of these factors • Leadership requires courage to act and live by one’s convictions

15. Power • Italian diplomat and political writer Niccolo Machiavelli believed: • The best individuals adapt to market forces and become masters of manipulative relations • Flattery, deceit, and murder may be necessary to win and retain power • People should never cultivate private virtues that in public life would prove political suicide • People should develop vices if helpful to one’s rule • Ends justify means and might makes right

16. Personal Integrity • German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed: • Human resoluteness, born of independent judgment, was the highest good • Individuals should be independent in thought and strong in conviction • Nature is filled with conflict spilling over into society • The best humans exhibit moral virtue (wisdom, justice, courage, and other ideals), regardless of loss or gain

17. Personal Integrity • German philosopher Marvin Heidegger believed: • In the Greek ideal of nobility • That adhering to personal principles in the face of social pressure to conform is important • That personal integrity is good, regardless of the results • That people must choose their lifestyle and commitments carefully

18. Duty and Right Action • Immanuel Kant, author of Criticism of Practical Reason and Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, believed: • People must choose the obligations that become their duty • People must be responsible for their own actions • A person with character will choose duty to conscience and will not succumb to base desires • Acts from a good motive and sense of duty are good, regardless of the consequences • This view greatly influenced Western civilization

19. Duty and Right Action • Personal conscience and duty are seen in the words of Israeli stateswomanGolda Meir: • “If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it, regardless of the possible outcome” • When faced with an ethical question, a person with character tries to sort right from wrong • Traditional definitions of good have guided Western culture • “People must stand for something, otherwise they will fall for anything”

20. Full-Swing Values • Full-swing values: • Used to assess the strength of one’s values • Important for people in leadership positions • A full-swing is needed to hit a “home run” • True for questions of right and wrong, good and bad • Axiology is a branch of philosophy dealing with values

21. Full-Swing Values • Five Points: • Point 1: know one’s values • Point 2: cherish one’s values • Point 3: declare one’s values • Point 4: act on one’s values • Point 5: act habitually on one’s values

22. Your Personal Value Orientation • Cases of Jim, Jane, Jack, Jill, and John • Jim-knows values, has not examined others • Jane-knows and cherishes values • Jack-knows, cherishes, and declares values • Jill-knows, cherishes, declares and acts on her values • John-knows, cherishes, declares, acts and does it habitually

23. Your Personal Value Orientation • Full-Swing Values

24. Full-Swing Values • In every field, the highest level of leadership isfull-swing • Leaders are impelled to act because the act is deemed good • Conscience dictates that the act is the right thing to do • The quality of doing the right thing for the right reason is called integrity • It is possessed by all truly great leaders

25. Leadership and Values • Why is it important for an organization to have values? • What is the role of the leader in establishing and enforcing these values? • There are many ideas on these questions • Few are as influential as those of the philosopher Plato

26. Leadership and Values • In Plato’s story The Republic, he retells the “Myth of Gyges” and the invisible ring • A shepherd finds a magic ring that makes one invisible • He uses the ring to eavesdrop, steal, and trespass • In a short time, he amasses wealth, kills the king, seduces the queen, and rules the land

27. Leadership and Values • Moral of the story: • Given power without accountability, an individual may do deeds that are harmful • People need the values of a just society and the oversight of wise and caring leaders • A republic is needed for the good of all individuals • A leader with false or harmful values can be injurious to others • Hitler Stalin, and many other tyrants in history are examples • Hence, leaders need to be caring, good, and strong

28. Leadership and Values • Culture shapes a leader’s values, which influences actions • African Society: • Ubuntu represents a collection of values, including harmony, compassion, respect, human dignity, and collective unity • Each of us is human through the humanity of other humans • A Zulu maxim: …a person is a person through other persons: my humanity is caught and bound inextricably in yours

29. How Leader Behavior Influences • Leaders who are immoral and non-principled: • Are difficult to forgive • Lack moral authority • Are not trusted or respected • The leader’s values determine the rightness and wrongness of what they do • The leader’s actions set the tone for other’s behavior and performance on the job • Leaders who are honest, unselfish, and dedicated help the group succeed

30. How Leader Behavior Influences • Warren Buffett’s order to senior managers when the took over the failed firm of Salomon: • Instantaneously and directly report any legal violations or moral failures by employees • Buffet understood that basic values are crucial for building trust • Honesty and responsibility are crucial for building trust, which is the bedrock of organizational survival and growth • Almost all business schools now require ethics courses

31. How Leader Behavior Influences • In general, a leader’s belief or value system will determine his/her success • Six values of caring leaders: • Honesty • Consideration • Responsibility • Persistence • Excellence • Commitment

32. How Leader Behavior Influences • Overall value of the caring leader is to serve • The caring leader focuses on the welfare of: • Customers • Employees • Shareholders • Community • Values affect everything a person does or is • What values do I wish to promote? • Are my actions helping accomplish that goal?

33. Personal Values • Aspects of society require leaders to commit to certain ideals and goals • This is addressed in “The Study of Values” byGordon Allport, Phillip Vernon, and Gardner Lindzey

34. Evaluating Personal Values • All values on the questionnaire are positive • Culture influences personal values • The questionnaire provides an overall value orientation • A person’s life allows maximum expression of personal values • Value systems are firm by the time most people reach adulthood • Different organizations reflect and endorse different value; leaders must promote the value system

35. Personal Value Questionnaire • Points to Remember: • Does not measure other important factors, such as aptitude, personal interests, temperament, or morality • Different values can enrich a group or organization