Purposeful Leaders & Their Ethical Lives

In all walks of life we actively search to find more purposeful leaders who are ethical and have a positive impact on the lives of others.

These leaders aren’t easy to find, even with the assistance of the Hubble Telescope.

In an ongoing mission to promote the benefits of ethical cultures and why this makes great business sense, I thought about identifying some purposeful leaders who live their values and drive winning teams.

We can learn a great deal from a handful of leaders in various walks of life who are selfless, honest, accountable, and genuinely concerned about the welfare of their team and constituents. 

One of my favorite purposeful leaders is professional basketball’s longest tenured coach, Gregg Popovich, of the San Antonio Spurs. With a career winning percentage of .691 and five world championships in twenty seasons as a head coach, Popp doesn’t take a backseat to anyone as an ethical leader.

What’s his secret sauce?

1. Tough love that is doled equally out to his players, staff, and himself.
2. Present a clear picture of what is needed and demanded expectation wise.
3. Show them care and concern; always being there for his team on and off the court.
4. Taking a genuine and sincere interest in his team and their welfare.
5. Embrace a bigger picture of our place on this planet contributing to the greater good.

Another example of a purposeful and ethical leader is Terri Kelly, CEO of W.L. Gore (Gore-Tex).

She joined Gore out of college in 1983 and was shocked to have been chosen CEO by her co-workers. How does a $3.1 billion company build an incredible culture?

1. Empowerment of the individual through the creation of teams where managers are called leaders.
2. Elimination of organizational charts.
3. Total collaboration and cooperation between team members to encourage growth, freedom, and responsibility.
4. Fairness to each other and everyone with whom they come in contact.
5. Value system that looks at results not only in monetary terms but also in emotional terms.

Gore consistently earns a top spot on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for list every year and they manage to maintain their people practices consistently. For them, ethical living is everything and a company hallmark.

How would you like to have full-time voluntary turnover at three percent?

The last example of a purposeful and ethical leader is Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. You have to give credit to any leader who calls himself one of the monkees.

Tony and his monkees have built one of the most unique online retailers and companies in America making ethical culture and values their top priority.

They actually conduct cultural fit interviews which carries half the weight of whether a candidate is hired. It is the cultural fit that becomes the most important factor in hiring new employees.

Zappos has ten core values that permeate every aspect of their company and operations. Some of the highlights are:

1. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication.
2. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit.
3. Be Humble.
4. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness.
5. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded.

The three above mentioned leaders are consistent winners and their organizations continue to grow. 

They make their teammates, associates, and fellow monkees a priority every day weaving a fabric of belief, loyalty, passion, and dedicated work that consistently delivers customer/consumer value.

Why can’t other leaders implement this into their cultures?

I simply believe that they place too much importance on them being the main engineer and catalyst for the organization.

In viewing this position, their lenses become narrow and they easily forget the significant help from others that paved the way for them to be a leader. Compensation, control, power, greed, entitlement, and the need for recognition becomes more important than the ethical values they have.

Thus, the picture show transforms into one of “me” rather than building teams about “us.”

More and more candidates today are demanding to see real values actively displayed in our companies. Cultural and ethical fit has never been more important, yet companies continue their poor recruiting methods screening out highly capable and value driven potential contributors.

We can do better than this and it’s high time that we find purposeful leaders who are honest, trustworthy, care about others, and are ethical living their lives through values.

All of us have leadership attributes of some kind and they are housed in our moral compasses. It is critical that we review who we are, what we stand for, and the values we believe in each day.

My daily review takes place via the power of prayer and my relationship with God.

As always, do your best every day and do the right thing.

Best/blessings, Mark