Ethical Leadership
- Who is an example of an ethical leader to you?
An example of an ethical leader to me is Jeff Noordoek, the CEO of Nelnet and speaker at the State Farm Ethics lecture. I know he isn’t personally a leader to me, but I liked all the examples he gave about how he has to pick and choose which companies to work with and make big decisions about numbers and stocks. I liked how he talked about the mistake he made in the past and how this has haunted him since. I can tell he uses this failure as a learning experience and as motivation moving forward.
- How can you become an ethical leader?
I think you can become an ethical leader by always being ethical from the moment you start a job at entry-level. If you have the power and integrity to say no when it’s the hardest I think that will help develop that foundation where ethics becomes natural and you’re able to always make the right decision as you step into a leadership role.
- What does ethics mean to you?
Ethics means doing the right thing even when it can be difficult to do. It means asking questions, looking up answers, speaking with outsiders, and saying no when necessary.
- In what ways are you an ethical person?
I’m an ethical person in school. I never plagiarize or copy other students assignments. I never use the book during the Knowledge Checks and I always follow through on my promises to my group members.
- In what ways do you influence others to be ethical?
I think especially in a group assignment and I notice that one section is plagiarized I would reach out to that person and let them know that they need to re-do their section before we turn it in. I’d make sure I gave them enough notice and did it privately so they wouldn’t feel bad. I think my way of approaching the situation and also placing such a high importance on why we can’t turn in plagiarized work would influence them to make a better decision in the future.
- What are your greatest ethical challenges as a student, as an employee, as a team member, etc.?
One of my greatest ethical challenges as a student this semester is not turning in the same assignment in my SCMA 250 course — that’s made up of mostly excel assignments that everyone does. I usually work on them with other students which I think is fine to help one another, but I need to make sure that we’re working on separate documents and turning in separate assignments.
- What could you do to improve?
Always work on my computer and them work on theirs, not on the same document. Also, always making sure that I’m not using my book during the Knowledge checks — which can be tempting.
