W4D4 - Ethics
January 29, 2014
"Like a muddied spring or a polluted well are the righteous who give way to the wicked" - Proverbs 25:26.
From time to time, the media focus on ethical lapses in business or government. Usually a leader has succumbed to temptation and perpetrated some scheme that costs taxpayers, employees or customers millions of dollars. At other times, we learn that followers have been suffering under the oppressive hand of a despotic government, cruel supervisor, or dictatorial pastor. In every case, it is faulty ethics that caused the leader to go awry and the people to suffer loss or pain. Leaders must have an ethical code that is constantly maturing to meet the increasing temptations that the Internet age presents or that from the vast amounts of wealth that some leaders have access to or control.
LEADERSHIP STEP: Who or what is influencing your ethical concepts and approach to leadership? Yesterday's Step was to identify values you will follow in your leadership and life roles. Continue working on those values today, and then do an honest self-assessment (or have a third party conduct it) as to how faithfully you are applying those values. Talk is cheap where ethics is concerned; right action is what matters, so choose one or two areas from your list and ask, "How am I doing?"