What does the term ‘ethical leadership’ mean to you?
One of the things that I have particularly enjoyed during my time with ICP has been the opportunity to be part of the UK’s Commission on Ethical Leadership. First established by The Association of School and College Leaders and now operating under the banner of the Chartered College of Teaching, the group brings together a range of teacher and leadership associations to explore what it means to lead in an ethical manner.
I was very touched when one of my former deputies, who left my school to become a headteacher, told me that her abiding memory of working with me was my advice ‘Just do the right thing’ The problem is how do we know what the right thing is? And how do we respond if we consider what we are being told to do is not the right thing?
The Commission has already published a fascinating report which offers a framework for leading ethically ( it can be found at https://chartered.college/ethical-leadership-commission/). It suggests that leaders should demonstrate seven qualities, including selflessness, integrity, honesty and openness and impartiality. The report also argues that ethical leaders need to display qualities such as wisdom, kindness courage, optimism, fairness and trustworthiness.
If we are honest none of us will claim to have matched all of these qualities all of the time. However, they are a powerful starting point to think through some of the challenges that any leadership role inevitably produces. For example, if we need to have a difficult conversation with a colleague, can we avoid doing it on a Friday afternoon so that the person concerned then spends the weekend worrying? Are we confident that all the decisions we take would stand up to the scrutiny offered by the ethical framework above?
Having published its first report, the Commission was recently reconvened and is now beginning to explore huge ethical issues such as Artificial Intelligence and its role and implementation within education.
Wherever we are in the world, I think the work of the commission acts as a powerful reference point and prompts a series of questions. If leadership is about making decisions, how do we know that the decisions that we are taking are the right ones? Is ethical leadership just about doing what we are told by others in government or more senior positions? How can we display in our leadership practices qualities such as selflessness, integrity, kindness and optimism? Am I building a culture in my school based upon promoting trust?
I think that one of the statements underpinning the report poses a question that has a relevance to the global community of practice that makes up ICP, wherever we are and whatever our role:
In a landscape where schools are of many different sorts and responsible to many different people, society must be able to rely on thousands of individual decision-making leaders to do the right thing.
Next time we face a difficult or troubling decision (I must admit that in my 23 years as a headteacher, that was pretty well every day) it is worth going back to these principles of ethical leadership as a useful touchstone to both guide and challenge us.
