An Introduction to the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Part 3 – Benefits of Using the Virtues of Ethical Leadership

An Introduction to the Virtues of Ethical Leadership
Part 3 – Benefits of Using the Virtues of Ethical Leadership
by Chad Weinstein

Part 1 https://ethinact.com/an-introduction-to-the-virtues-of-ethical-leadership/
Part 2 https://ethinact.com/an-introduction-to-the-virtues-of-ethical-leadership-part-2-the-nature-of-virtues/

The Virtues of Ethical Leadership help us in multiple ways. Broadly, ethical leaders use the VEL framework to:
1. Guide our personal and professional development.
2. Analyze leadership challenges and solve problems.
3. Reflect and learn from our experiences.
4. Evaluate, maintain, and improve our performance as leaders.
5. Build successful teams.
Each of these applications of the VEL is explained briefly as follows.

1. The Virtues enable us to guide our own development, by specifying and naming specific areas of strength and areas for improvement. All of us have relative strengths and weaknesses. By looking at these five Virtues – Service, Competence, Creativity, Clarity, and Courage – as areas for developing abilities and commitments, we can set specific goals, and then take concrete actions to achieve those goals.

Assessments like the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Self Inventory (VELSI) and Virtues of Ethical Leadership Feedback Assessment (VELFA) can help us set goals and prioritize our efforts. So can candid conversations with knowledgeable friends or mentors, and even quiet solo reflection. With good input, we can engage in some of the many activities and practices described in the third section of this Guide, and we can make real progress. For example, some leaders set a personal goal to focus on one Virtue per quarter, and then they may take a class, read a book, watch a video, or undertake any number of other ways of mastering new skills or building new habits, related to that virtue. Others move through a study of the virtues at a more rapid pace, e.g., spending two weeks on each Virtue, engaging in daily reflection and brief readings to sharpen their understanding and expression of one Virtue at a time. Virtue work groups can provide mutual support, with readings, films, or discussions focused on specific virtues, e.g. on a monthly or semi-monthly basis. However we apply it, the VEL framework is a tool for organizing our efforts to get better, for recognizing our ongoing progress, and for assuring our continued effectiveness as ethical leaders.

2. The Virtues are a lens for leadership analysis and problem-solving. When facing a situation that calls for action, we can use the VEL framework to generate and evaluate options. For example, if members of our team are failing to meet expectations, should we consider this primarily:
• a matter of Competence, where training or adding team members would be valuable?
• a question of Clarity, aligning team members with respect to goals?
• a need for a new approach, calling on Creativity?
• a situation where team members seem to be putting their own desires above the needs of the team (Service)?
• a lack of Courage because we know that the right path is risky or difficult?
Questions such as these can stimulate great team discussions. They are equally valuable (and sometimes more difficult) when considering our options as individual leaders. Virtues can stimulate us think about what might be missing – or what might be excessive – and to consider what we can do differently.

3. The Virtues also helps us reflect and learn from our experience, providing a real framework for turning those experiences into practical wisdom that will guide us in the future. Just as we can use the VEL framework to understand a challenge in front of us, we can also use it to assess and understand what has taken place. It can be fun and valuable to consider how the expression of virtues led to success. This process can be not just affirming but genuinely enlightening: we become aware of things that we may do well, but unconsciously. That awareness makes us more effective as leaders, and especially as teachers and mentors to others.

Considering our mistakes or failures is less fun, but undeniably valuable. Here, the VEL can serve as a “silver lining,” allowing us to gain precious insight from even painful mistakes. If we accept that we are fallible and are willing to think critically about our part in bringing about bad outcomes, then we open ourselves to learning that can ultimately make us stronger. Again, the VEL model provides a constructive framework for evaluating how we can improve. When we know how we fell short, we can cultivate the commitments and abilities to do better next time.

4. The Virtues offer an explicit framework for evaluating leadership performance in order to maintain or improve it. As human beings, we tend to judge ourselves based on our intentions, and others based on their actions. By looking at how a leader’s virtues are expressed in words and actions over time, we can engage in productive discussions about where we see strengths, shortcomings, areas of great insight, or blind spots. The virtues provide a vocabulary for discussing how our abilities and commitments guide our choices, how those choices guide our words and actions, and how words and actions lead to results. Once again, we can be conscious about the sound choices we made, understanding what Virtues guided them so that we can be confident enough to repeat our successes. Virtue-based reflection can likewise help us understand why, despite our best intentions and efforts, we made poor choices or other mistakes. We can learn from faulty decisions and resolve to act differently in the future. We may also reflect on good choices that arose from virtuous habits or thoughtful practice, thereby maintaining and reinforcing such virtuous habits or practices. Finally, we can also use this normative framework to help others find that same awareness concerning their actions. If we accept the core idea that everyone can get better if they commit to doing so, this kind of reflection becomes less threatening and more effective at guiding future development.

5. The Virtues help leaders build teams with the right deep capacities and commitments. We often select team members based primarily on their knowledge and experience, and sometimes based simply on who is available at any given time. In addition to these obvious factors, thoughtful leaders can use the VEL framework to optimize the composition of a team, seeking not just skills or knowledge (the sorts of factors that align with the virtue of Competency), but also, but also Service-orientation, Creativity, Clarity, and/or Courage. There’s rarely one single, optimal composition for a team, but the Virtues provide an additional dimension for building teams that are more likely to succeed.

The Virtues can also help teams run better. A leader can look at what’s happening within the team through the lens of Virtues, and help the team adjust accordingly. Teams have blind spots just as surely as individuals do, and the Virtues can help address them. The vocabulary alone may be useful for stimulating conversation among team members, for example when we want to “get un-stuck” by seeing a problem from a different perspective.

We all have strengths and shortcomings relative to different situations. Thinking about the right Virtue mix can set a team up for success for a given set of circumstances or objectives. It can also identify and solve problems, and boost performance.

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