Claudine Jean
December 4, 2014
Dosh
Research Essay Leadership is the hardest job anyone can take on. It requires confidence, problem analysis and most importantly, ethical values. Values come into play in leadership when a leader is faced with the responsibility to make impactful decisions to maintain peace. The values a leader holds determines the decision he makes and whether or not it will be for good or for bad. The core value of leaderships have changed throughout the years, however, with the involvement of ethics, they can be for good. An example would be how in the 1960’s a black leader’s core ethical value would be equality, now it would be responsibility to educate the uneducated. No matter what way you put it, leadership is most effect when ethical values are involved when making decisions.
A leader’s ethical responsibility is to keep his people safe. To further explain, there are four components to Ethical leadership, “vision” being the most important. Vision is the ability to frame actions (based off of moral values) in order to achieve an ideal environment. The connection between vision and this specific responsibility lays within the leader. Before creating safety, a leader must be able to construct a plan through his ethics in order to ensure the most effective plan as possible. For example, in the speech “I am alone,” Apache Indian’s home is jeopardized by white men who have come to take it over. Like any other people who love their land, they fought to keep it. However, they were severely outnumbered and eventually Cochise had to make the decision to give up the land in order to save what was left of his people. They way he did this was by going to the white man and giving up all of his pride in order to beg for peace. As the leader, it was in Cochise’s decision to fight an unwinnable fight or give up. Cochise’s ethical responsibility was to keep his people safe and the sacrifice he made was for the better. In this way, his leadership was effective by way of survival. The selfless act of forfeiting his pride to help his people is what makes Cochise an ethical leader. To wrap it all together, Cochise valued the safety of his people and was willing to do what was most effective to help his people. So, by giving up his home in a degrading way, he was able to save his people effectively. Pathos is shown throughout this poem as Cochise expresses empathy for the lives he has lost and his inability to save his home. Next, leadership is effective when honesty is established. Honesty is an almost dead ethical value within politics, but those who had it, Abraham Lincoln for example, are remembered as great leaders. Being caught in lies or coming off as a liar completely ruins your ethos. In JFK’s Inaugural address, the honesty expressed about war and hardships to come gained the trust of the people who listened. Instead of telling people how easy it would be to serve your country and to join since nothing will happen, JFK told them and asked them to do what they can for their country. The short phrases that he delivered got the minds of the Americans jogged and effects started to arise. After this speech was given, many men enlisted into the army, solely because of JFK’s inspirational and honest words. This fact shows how honesty is an effective value in leadership. Telling people the truth will not make them gain confidence but instead pride for where they are from. This is exactly how JFK’s messaged was delivered and received. This great leadership is still spoken about today solely because he demonstrated mmoral values that most people forfeited in order to get what they wanted. JFK’s ethos was heightened by this speech because he was able to gain the honesty of his people. This honesty established trust and honor and is exactly why people began to serve. To continue, leadership decisions become ineffective once equality is removed. Equality has been a struggle for decades in the United States in ways such as
