94700 – Organizational Design and Implementation

Leadership Reflections

Leading by example: A Civil Servant’s insights on Ethical Leadership

Writing an academic reflection on leadership involves pondering over our encounters

with real-life challenges in a leadership position and what we learned while undergoing those
experiences; and gathering our thoughts on global best practices in leadership taught in an
academic setting. The purpose of writing this reflection on leadership is similar i.e., to gain a
better understanding of ourselves which includes our values, knowledge, and skills, so we can
learn from our experiences, and adapt and respond to new leadership challenges. A central
question to writing this piece is what separates a strong team from a weak one? And most of the
time the answer would be their leaders. High-performing teams have, almost always, ethical
leaders that lead by example. They are the torchbearers who shine a light on the path ahead.
They also show and teach their employees how to handle roadblocks and what kind of behaviors
they should have. When leaders focus more on doing than on speaking, the employees, in return,
mirror their leaders’ conduct by walking in their footsteps, learning from their mistakes,
contributing meaningful ideas, and accomplishing designated tasks.

To become an effective leader, we need more than just a title i.e., it is a combination of
the way we think, we translate our thoughts into actions, and treat our subordinates and peers.
Leaders are put in place to achieve important goals set by their organizations. Effective
leadership achieves these goals by empowering their teams in a way that creates conditions in
which they can thrive. Furthermore, good leaders do not restrict their crosshairs only to the
achievement of the goals rather they see beyond that and put an emphasis on accomplishing the
vision attached to those goals. Such leaders rally people around a mission and create a sense of
shared purpose by doing so. Finally, conscientious leaders pay heed to the thoughts and feelings
of their teams by cultivating trust and making sure everyone is heard, treated equitably, and
respected beyond any social or geographic stereotypes.

According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who helped to popularize

emotional intelligence, there are five key elements to it i.e., self-awareness, self-regulation,
motivation, empathy, and social skills. The importance of knowing and practicing these key
elements of emotional intelligence is vital for leaders who want to take the efficiency and
success of their teams to new heights. To be a successful leader, it is imperative to develop
strong track records of managing themselves and their professional relationships well. To
accomplish this goal, emotional intelligence helps us manage our emotions and cultivate positive
relationships across our organization's hierarchical structure. Effective leaders avoid strong
emotions as they might add a bias to their thinking and judgment. Composure, focus, and
realistic optimism are the best soft tools for an effective leader. They manage their emotions by
inculcating the values of self-awareness and by practicing good self-care. On a more humane
level, effective leaders practice empathy to nurture positive relationships with their team
members. The importance of practicing emotional intelligence increases manyfold in a
challenging situation and here effective leaders act on principles of objectivity and empathy
instead of emotions and authority.

According to Anne Morris and Frances Frei, trust is the basis for almost everything we
do, and its importance becomes even more pronounced when we must build and lead effective
and high-performing teams. According to them, trust is the basic input that makes it possible for
leaders to create the conditions for employees to fully realize their capacity and power. The idea
of trust is further broken down into three components i.e., authenticity, logic, and empathy. Our
teams trust us more when they think they are interacting with an authentic person. A person who
lives by his/her convictions rather than being fed by someone else. Next, the quotient of trust
increases when our subordinates have faith in our judgment and competence. And finally, the
teams are very well-knit when members believe that their leader cares about them on a personal
level. On the contrary, when trust is lost, it can almost always be traced back to a breakdown in
one or more of these three drivers.

In a nutshell, leadership by example revolves around setting high standards of excellence

for ourselves that we want our employees to follow. Leading by example proves to our teams
that what we say and do matters, first for ourselves and then for everyone else. Next comes the
importance of strong ethical values and practices, which can help our teams reach their true
potential. Then, the role of an emotionally mature leader, who acts more on merit and empathy
than on whims and emotions, is of vital importance to high-performing teams. Finally, and most
importantly, trust in the leadership is the cornerstone for great organizational health which results
in the achievement of goals of everyone i.e., organizations, leaders, and individual team
members.