Ethical Leadership: Being of Service to the Organisation.

Reading time: 4 min

by Alice Alessandri and Alberto Aleo

Imagine you’ve just received the promotion you’ve been looking forward to. You are finally leading a team, officially tasked with coordinating their activities and overseeing their results. In addition to the personal satisfaction that such a role may bring, you may now be wondering how to approach your new position, whether there are reference guides to be a good leader, and what responsibilities come with this newfound authority. Whether you’ve already experienced this, you think it might happen in the future, or you are simply curious about what ethical leadership means, this article is just for you.

The Honor of Serving as a Leader.

The title of this paragraph is inspired by the common phrase heard in formal inaugural speeches: “I’m pleased to serve as…” This is a meaningful expression aimed at introducing a subtle concept: a leader is there to serve the team, not the other way around.

The concept of servant leadership was first theorized in 1970 by researcher Robert K. Greenleaf in his book “The Servant as Leader” and further developed by Larry Spears in 1998. It centers around the idea that, especially in roles of responsibility within any institution, duties come before rights.
So, if you’ve been appointed as the leader of a group, a department, or have people to manage, remember to consider your role not as a means of exercising power, but rather as a way of serving others.

After all, leadership comes from the verb “to lead,” which literally means to guide and not, as many mistakenly believe, to command.

Leadership at the service of the organization is when a leader correctly understands they should be a guide while enhancing this role with the ability to support and foster growth – both individually and collectively – without losing sight of goals and results.

Ethical Leadership.

There are many ways to define ethics when applied to leadership, but they all share (or at least should share) a few fundamental principles:

• The previously described spirit of Service;
• The ability to Care for others, which is strictly related to the quality and quantity of the time dedicated to one’s team;
• Love-for oneself, for one’s work, and for the people one works with;
• A sense of Fairness, which allows one to recognize talents and needs of each individual;
• The essential role of Soft skills – those relational, empathic, communicative, and listening abilities that are crucial for any leader.

At Passodue, our definition of ethical leadership is based on four interrelated and essential pillars:

1. The leader acknowledges and supports their team members in meeting their needs – both material and psychological – and respects what each member considers valuable. [Awareness and respect for everyone’s core values]
2. The leader safeguards and nurtures what they consider valuable, for themselves and for the organization they represent – be it tangible or intangible.
    [Awareness and respect for one’s own values]
3. Drawing on a mix of skills and qualifications, the leader aims at achieving integration (not compromise) between everything that is valuable for themselves, for the organization, and for the individual team members.
4. The leader fully embraces the responsibilities of their role, understanding that relationships (and the related soft skills) are strategic to achieve mutual and lasting satisfaction

The Spirit of Service and the Duties of an Ethical Leader.

By now, it should be clear that leadership begins within, and comes from an awareness of who we are, our talents, and our values. It is the result of a continuous evolutionary process that helps us avoid the common mistakes made by those who see leadership as a mere exercise of power.

A leader has many duties, i.e., tasks that fall under their responsibility. These are the areas where the 4 pillars of ethical leadership are put into practice:

• They are responsible for defining and conveying goals and the strategies to achieve them. This should be done as collaboratively as possible, combining personal and organizational interests.
• They assign roles and suggest actions based on each person’s qualities and aspirations, supporting each team member’s professional growth.
• They manage time to achieve the right pace, while promoting efficiency and creating a workplace that is pleasantly challenging.
• They oversee results and strategy, but they do so while respecting the value exchange with customers, colleagues, and society as a whole.
• They promote team spirit and provide motivation, especially while managing moments of crisis or tension.
• They embody and uphold the company’s culture and values, recognizing that profit is the natural outcome of consistent and recognizable actions.
• They act as a bridge between different functions within the organization, helping to integrate their team with the rest of the company.
• They continuously learn, keeping their skills up to date, never thinking that they’ve reached the top, but viewing each victory as a starting point and each failure as a valuable lesson.

Whatever professional role you are currently in, remember that it is your awareness, respect, sense of responsibility, and willingness to serve others that will enable you to lead a team effectively and ethically. 

EXERCISE

Reflect on your current job and ask yourself: “What is my purpose? How am I useful to my team, my colleagues, and the organization as a whole?” List at least ten answers to this question.

Compare your list with the responsibilities of an ethical leader described above and identify the areas you can work on to evolve your leadership style to serve your team more and more.

| partem claram semper aspice |