1 00:00:00,030 --> 00:00:01,560 in this video we're going to talk about 2 00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:04,230 ethical leadership specifically how 3 00:00:04,230 --> 00:00:05,670 ethical leadership relates to 4 00:00:05,670 --> 00:00:07,980 transparent communication we're going to 5 00:00:07,980 --> 00:00:09,900 look at a model of transparency and how 6 00:00:09,900 --> 00:00:12,509 it applies to organizational settings so 7 00:00:12,509 --> 00:00:19,770 let's unpack the details so they're 8 00:00:19,770 --> 00:00:21,869 friends Alex line here and today we're 9 00:00:21,869 --> 00:00:23,939 going to talk about ethical leadership 10 00:00:23,939 --> 00:00:25,710 normally on this channel we're talking 11 00:00:25,710 --> 00:00:27,269 about communication and leadership and 12 00:00:27,269 --> 00:00:29,490 this topic is near and dear to my heart 13 00:00:29,490 --> 00:00:31,740 I wrote about this in my book I'll put a 14 00:00:31,740 --> 00:00:33,300 link to this in the description below 15 00:00:33,300 --> 00:00:35,340 the video you can also visit it on the 16 00:00:35,340 --> 00:00:37,559 website as well if you would like so 17 00:00:37,559 --> 00:00:39,329 today we'll talk about my bird's-eye 18 00:00:39,329 --> 00:00:41,489 view of ethical leadership specifically 19 00:00:41,489 --> 00:00:43,739 about communication and then I'll unpack 20 00:00:43,739 --> 00:00:46,079 a three-part model of transparent 21 00:00:46,079 --> 00:00:48,059 communication that's in that book so 22 00:00:48,059 --> 00:00:50,250 first here's my big picture view on 23 00:00:50,250 --> 00:00:53,850 ethical leadership ethics is everybody's 24 00:00:53,850 --> 00:00:56,340 responsibility and it's not just because 25 00:00:56,340 --> 00:01:00,359 it's the right thing to do bad decisions 26 00:01:00,359 --> 00:01:03,270 are often bad because they are unethical 27 00:01:03,270 --> 00:01:05,519 in other words unethical behavior is bad 28 00:01:05,519 --> 00:01:07,470 for business if you look a lot of the 29 00:01:07,470 --> 00:01:08,840 problems that we've seen in 30 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:11,250 organizations over the past 15 or 20 31 00:01:11,250 --> 00:01:13,740 years a lot of them started internally 32 00:01:13,740 --> 00:01:16,170 with bad unethical decision so it's not 33 00:01:16,170 --> 00:01:18,390 just about doing what's good because we 34 00:01:18,390 --> 00:01:19,830 want to do what's good it would be good 35 00:01:19,830 --> 00:01:21,570 people it's because it's going to also 36 00:01:21,570 --> 00:01:24,240 destroy our organizations so I really 37 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:25,680 believe that part of this is 38 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:28,049 communication we often see a tension 39 00:01:28,049 --> 00:01:30,840 between secrecy and transparency in 40 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:32,310 organizations and on the side of 41 00:01:32,310 --> 00:01:34,409 sequency that's where a lot of these 42 00:01:34,409 --> 00:01:36,780 problems begin so I believe and agree 43 00:01:36,780 --> 00:01:39,360 with Matt Seeger and Rob Omer they wrote 44 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:41,400 about this in an article in management 45 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:43,229 communication quarterly that leaders 46 00:01:43,229 --> 00:01:46,399 have what we call communication based 47 00:01:46,399 --> 00:01:48,270 responsibilities they have a 48 00:01:48,270 --> 00:01:51,390 responsibility to be informed and get 49 00:01:51,390 --> 00:01:52,799 informed about any of the potential 50 00:01:52,799 --> 00:01:54,210 problems that are happening in the 51 00:01:54,210 --> 00:01:55,619 organization to create an atmosphere 52 00:01:55,619 --> 00:01:57,390 where those problems can be identified 53 00:01:57,390 --> 00:02:00,570 and then solve those problems so there's 54 00:02:00,570 --> 00:02:03,060 my bird's-eye view on transparency and 55 00:02:03,060 --> 00:02:05,009 organizational settings and now I want 56 00:02:05,009 --> 00:02:07,020 to get into this three-part model so 57 00:02:07,020 --> 00:02:09,508 let's unpack it so on the flip side of 58 00:02:09,508 --> 00:02:11,459 this model of transparency we have this 59 00:02:11,459 --> 00:02:12,860 issue of secrecy 60 00:02:12,860 --> 00:02:14,570 and that's usually a sign of trouble and 61 00:02:14,570 --> 00:02:16,790 usually something you want to avoid it 62 00:02:16,790 --> 00:02:19,100 leads to lots of unethical behavior in 63 00:02:19,100 --> 00:02:21,110 the long run so let's talk about this 64 00:02:21,110 --> 00:02:24,050 organizational transparency model and it 65 00:02:24,050 --> 00:02:26,020 has three parts the first part is 66 00:02:26,020 --> 00:02:28,610 organizational openness so when you have 67 00:02:28,610 --> 00:02:30,530 an open organization all the 68 00:02:30,530 --> 00:02:33,170 compensation hiring and firing decisions 69 00:02:33,170 --> 00:02:34,760 are all pretty obvious everybody knows 70 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:36,710 the rules of the game the way you get 71 00:02:36,710 --> 00:02:39,200 projects approved or maybe not approved 72 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:41,150 it's all really open people understand 73 00:02:41,150 --> 00:02:43,340 the expectations and that's the kind of 74 00:02:43,340 --> 00:02:45,200 organizational openness you want where 75 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:46,880 everything is out in the open and plain 76 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:48,770 to see the processes are not secretive 77 00:02:48,770 --> 00:02:51,260 or hidden a lot of times where people if 78 00:02:51,260 --> 00:02:53,540 people don't know how things get approve 79 00:02:53,540 --> 00:02:55,130 how people hire get fired how you get a 80 00:02:55,130 --> 00:02:57,350 raise you end up with a really political 81 00:02:57,350 --> 00:02:59,239 kind of organization that can turn 82 00:02:59,239 --> 00:03:01,489 negative and so you want to creative 83 00:03:01,489 --> 00:03:03,590 processes that's really open and the 84 00:03:03,590 --> 00:03:05,270 rules of the game are obvious the other 85 00:03:05,270 --> 00:03:07,070 part of organizational openness is the 86 00:03:07,070 --> 00:03:10,430 obligation to speak about problems that 87 00:03:10,430 --> 00:03:12,380 you see you have an obligation to talk 88 00:03:12,380 --> 00:03:14,870 as Karl Weick said because if you're not 89 00:03:14,870 --> 00:03:17,299 speaking about problems that you see you 90 00:03:17,299 --> 00:03:18,739 end up with what Karl White calls 91 00:03:18,739 --> 00:03:22,070 pluralistic ignorance where you see a 92 00:03:22,070 --> 00:03:23,480 problem something that looks out of 93 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:25,040 place are odd but you don't say anything 94 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:26,989 about it and then the next person maybe 95 00:03:26,989 --> 00:03:28,760 sees that same problem but doesn't say 96 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:30,620 anything about it and everybody knows is 97 00:03:30,620 --> 00:03:32,330 a problem and no one's speaking so it's 98 00:03:32,330 --> 00:03:34,220 called pluralistic ignorance and by 99 00:03:34,220 --> 00:03:36,530 speaking about it by having that 100 00:03:36,530 --> 00:03:38,870 obligation to talk when you see a 101 00:03:38,870 --> 00:03:41,630 problem you puncture pluralistic 102 00:03:41,630 --> 00:03:43,190 ignorance and then the problems can be 103 00:03:43,190 --> 00:03:45,290 identified early and solved so 104 00:03:45,290 --> 00:03:47,989 organizational openness is a huge part 105 00:03:47,989 --> 00:03:49,580 to establish this culture in this 106 00:03:49,580 --> 00:03:51,410 atmosphere to lead to more ethical 107 00:03:51,410 --> 00:03:53,780 communication and leadership the second 108 00:03:53,780 --> 00:03:56,570 part of the model is information sharing 109 00:03:56,570 --> 00:03:59,810 information should be shared widely 110 00:03:59,810 --> 00:04:02,180 because high-quality information leads 111 00:04:02,180 --> 00:04:05,720 to better decision making if you find 112 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:06,950 that you're in a context where people 113 00:04:06,950 --> 00:04:09,280 are holding back information or leaving 114 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,200 specific details out because they want 115 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,299 to get something approved that's a sign 116 00:04:14,299 --> 00:04:16,070 of trouble that's another type of 117 00:04:16,070 --> 00:04:18,440 secrecy the reason you want to share 118 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:20,418 information is because if you get all 119 00:04:20,418 --> 00:04:22,610 the information on the table you're much 120 00:04:22,610 --> 00:04:24,830 more likely collectively to have a 121 00:04:24,830 --> 00:04:26,110 healthier 122 00:04:26,110 --> 00:04:27,909 decision-making process that you can 123 00:04:27,909 --> 00:04:30,219 really move the organization forward if 124 00:04:30,219 --> 00:04:32,560 you're basing your decisions on have 125 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:34,810 truths on strategically ambiguous 126 00:04:34,810 --> 00:04:36,550 information you're going to end up with 127 00:04:36,550 --> 00:04:39,280 poor quality decisions so Nelson one of 128 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:41,469 my favorite authors called this idea 129 00:04:41,469 --> 00:04:45,009 significant choice people have the right 130 00:04:45,009 --> 00:04:47,979 to make an informed choice about the 131 00:04:47,979 --> 00:04:50,710 significant issues in their lives and in 132 00:04:50,710 --> 00:04:52,689 this case in organizational settings if 133 00:04:52,689 --> 00:04:54,819 you're going to base information on 134 00:04:54,819 --> 00:04:56,949 manipulation on partial information 135 00:04:56,949 --> 00:04:59,370 you're going to get bad decision-making 136 00:04:59,370 --> 00:05:03,009 the third part of this model is candor 137 00:05:03,009 --> 00:05:04,990 every once in a while you're going to 138 00:05:04,990 --> 00:05:07,300 have to have a conversation about a 139 00:05:07,300 --> 00:05:09,580 sensitive topic oftentimes the topic 140 00:05:09,580 --> 00:05:11,949 might involve somebody personally and so 141 00:05:11,949 --> 00:05:15,310 here you need a mixture of open and 142 00:05:15,310 --> 00:05:17,409 honest communication but you also need a 143 00:05:17,409 --> 00:05:21,279 balance of care and kindness so to me 144 00:05:21,279 --> 00:05:23,469 candor is both of these things you don't 145 00:05:23,469 --> 00:05:25,599 want somebody who's brutally honest with 146 00:05:25,599 --> 00:05:27,400 you you just want them to be plain 147 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:29,830 spoken about the issue to broach the 148 00:05:29,830 --> 00:05:31,270 topic so you can solve their problem 149 00:05:31,270 --> 00:05:34,300 they have to do that with care you don't 150 00:05:34,300 --> 00:05:35,770 want to be the kind of person and maybe 151 00:05:35,770 --> 00:05:37,599 you know the kind of people that will 152 00:05:37,599 --> 00:05:38,949 end up hurting people's feelings 153 00:05:38,949 --> 00:05:41,650 routinely and say well I was just being 154 00:05:41,650 --> 00:05:44,469 honest yes you need to be honest and 155 00:05:44,469 --> 00:05:47,770 open you need to be candid but you also 156 00:05:47,770 --> 00:05:50,860 need to do that with care and that way 157 00:05:50,860 --> 00:05:52,599 you can have difficult conversations 158 00:05:52,599 --> 00:05:54,250 without fear that you're gonna hurt 159 00:05:54,250 --> 00:05:55,599 people's feelings all the time because 160 00:05:55,599 --> 00:05:57,939 you're to brutish in your approach so 161 00:05:57,939 --> 00:05:59,770 those are the three parts the model 162 00:05:59,770 --> 00:06:01,960 question of the day which one of these 163 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:04,180 you find most difficult in your 164 00:06:04,180 --> 00:06:06,189 particular professional setting I would 165 00:06:06,189 --> 00:06:07,629 love to hear your comments in that 166 00:06:07,629 --> 00:06:10,180 section below the video so thanks god 167 00:06:10,180 --> 00:00:00,000 bless and I will see you next time