So for the month of February I've been reading the book Living Into Leadership - A Journey in Ethics by Bowen H. "Buzz" McCoy. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in leadership or ethics. The book has a reader friendly tone and is filled with interesting anecdotes.
Buzz begins the book by defining ethics. He says that ethics are contextual and derived from the faith and value system of a particular culture. He also makes the assertion that one's ethics are affected by life. They are normative, meaning they change over time as people's attitudes change. Due to the normative characteristic of ethics, we need to establish our own personal ethic.
I really identified with Buzz's command to establish a personal ethic. In my opinion, to be a leader you must be introspective. You have to look inside yourself and connect with your own moral compass in order to determine when you will let things slide or when to take a stand. A leader needs to be able to stand firm in their decisions with a strong sense of right behind their words and actions.
I feel this is both a strength and a fault of my own. I have a decisive personality and I feel most of my decisions are guided by a sound moral compass of my own, but this can be tricky. How often do I really reflect on what exactly makes up my personal ethic? Is it my religion as a Christian? Is it the opinions of my parents or friends? Is it created by what is socially acceptable, or the "norm"?
Reading this book has forced me to take a good hard look at what my personal ethic is and I think it is made up of a little of all of these components. I realized that Buzz's statement that "life affects your values" is true. Although I feel that my moral code is strongly grounded in my faith, many of my life experiences have either fortified or changed my ethical standpoint. At the ripe old age of 22-years-old I expect that life will throw me a few more loops before I arrive at a concrete definition of what my personal ethic is, but I'd like to think that this independent study/class/blog has helped me on my journey to that point.
3 comments:
Your comments remind me of the first Psalm that encourages us to delight in the Lord. If we do, it says we will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf will not wither; and whatever we do shall prosper. Psalm 1:1-3. The Psalmist is contrasting the righteous and the wicked, but as leaders we can learn from the underlying message--the difference between the two is the source of their counsel.
I think you make some great points here and I am interested in checking on this book that brought you to these thoughts. Somehting I have been struggling a lot with recently is my own personal ethic as well as my own desires and how they are playing into my own life. I have strong beliefs but I question as to whether I am constantly living and being true to these beliefs. I think it is quite easy to overlook your personal ethic on a typical day and than feel strongly about it while talking about it. So my challenge to myself and any readers is to really explore your ethics and then live them in your everyday life. Does that make sense?
I believe we must be very careful as we look to society's standards of "ethics" to set any kind of 'norm.'
Society's ethics seem to be constantly changing, where as God's standards remain constant. I agree that we must intentionally evaluate and measure what we believe and how this shapes and impacts our morals and ethical decisions/actions. I like this quote from Romans 12:2 "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
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