“We need smart, gutsy leaders with vision and integrity to get us through the minefields – leaders who can teach others to follow in their footsteps, hold firm to their values, and proliferate those norms across the organization.” That’s what Noel M Tichy and Andrew R McGill say in the introduction to a book which they have edited, The Ethical Challenge: How to Lead with Unyielding Integrity. The book arose out of a Michigan Business School MBA course and conference, and it features chapters by a number of prominent business leaders responding particularly to the ethical issues arising from the Enron collapse.
I normally find books with multiple authors to be difficult to read, so this one has been on my “unread” pile for several months. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting almost every chapter was. Former US Secretary of State James A Baker has an interesting chapter on business ethics in skeptical times, reflecting that some executive compensation schemes are creating perverse incentives, and that esoteric accounting rules are an obstacle to simple honesty. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt discusses how a CEO needs to be the moral leader of a company.
James Hackett, CEO of Steelcase, provides a chapter which describes some significant ethical challenges which he has faced, and how he has communicated ethical values in his organisation. Eleanor Josaitis, executive director of Focus:HOPE, provides a brief chapter on the extraordinary work done by her organisation in serving the disadvantaged. All up, it’s a book worth reading, although not in the “essential” category.