How to Lead Effectively (and Responsibly)

If we think about the ways that leaders and leadership impact our everyday lives, we realise that leadership is an awesome responsibility. Political leaders, for example, make laws and policies that affect us in myriad ways – regulating where and how we live, the behaviours we engage in, the opportunities that we have, and even some of the possessions we own.

In the workplace, leaders affect our lives in multiple ways, including our career trajectory and earnings, the quality of the work that we do, the amount of stress we experience, and the balance between work and family life.

Moreover, the decisions that leaders make can have implications for the treatment of constituents, employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Leaders’ decisions can make our lives easier or can make them miserable.

This is why responsible leadership is so important. What is responsible leadership? It consists of several elements. First and foremost, it’s striving to be a good person. This involves character. To encapsulate character, I turn to virtue ethics and the writings of Aristotle. Our model, which includes a measurement instrument for rating leader character, is based on the cardinal virtues (Riggio, et al., 2010). Prudence is the first, and it is associated with wisdom and humility.

Humility is necessary because responsible leaders don’t believe that they know it all. They listen to the perspectives of other people and solicit their opinions (wisdom). Fortitude, or courage, is the virtue that keeps the leader on the right path and having the courage to do the right thing. Temperance, the third cardinal virtue, keeps the leader in check, not giving into passions (or greed) and being emotionally balanced. The final virtue, justice, is all about fairness, and a responsible leader treats people fairly and never takes credit for others’ work or accomplishments.

The second element of responsible leadership is having good, core values. For political leaders, especially, valuing human rights – having care and concern for others is essential. Business leaders and other types of leaders also need to possess core values. Seeing the humanity in every person, including those with whom you may disagree. Along with this is the value of freedom, allowing others to have a sense of autonomy. Valuing equality – treating people fairly (related to the virtue of justice), but also valuing equity, which is realising that concessions need to be made for some people to gain equality. These values are all about being “other-oriented” – caring about the opportunities available to and the ultimate well-being of those you lead (in academia, this is about “follower-centric” approaches to leadership).

Finally, responsible leaders need to engage in responsible behaviour. As the saying goes, the leader needs to “walk the talk.” Responsible behaviours include being authentic, being truthful and straightforward with followers. There needs to be collaboration with them and recognition of their contributions. Importantly, putting the needs of those you lead front and centre. Selfishness is poison for responsible leadership. Finally, responsible leaders need to work hard to become even better. Leadership is a journey, not a destination.

For Consideration and Leader Development:

If you want to develop as a responsible leader, here are some considerations:

• Reflect on the awesome responsibilities of your leadership.
• How does your leadership affect others?
• Are you living up to your responsibilities?
• To your core values?