Betty Siegel Imagines Ethical Leadership

Written by Mary Welch Tuesday, November 17 2009

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John Lennon wanted to give peace a chance. Maybe - just maybe - it will be a coal miner's daughter with trademark oversized red glasses who will pull it off.

Siegel: Emphasis on ethics

Betty Siegel, president emeritus of Kennesaw University and holder of the endowed Chair of Leadership, Ethics, and Character at The Siegel Institute, is taking her belief in ethical leadership to a global scale. If she's not in Vancouver talking with the Dalai Lama, she's in South Africa comparing notes with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu or in China coordinating her theories with high school students.

At the heart of her signature program is The Oxford Conclave on Global Ethics, which was launched in 2004. The conclave serves as a catalyst for a movement to renew higher education's commitment to the development of ethical leadership and to explore its role as a change agent for social responsibility.

"It's an embarrassment of riches," she admits. "Now that I've retired as president of the university, I have the opportunity to be fully involved in global initiatives that I had started while at Kennesaw. It's action, not theory. I'm now able to go around the world and meet with leaders and students to set up a frame of reference on how to initiate successful programs of ethical leadership. We are setting up a framework so that we can talk about ethical leadership. In order to bring about institutional change, leaders must do three things: articulate it, validate it, and replicate it. We intend to do this across the globe to current world leaders and leaders of the future."

There are five tenets that must be articulated, validated, and replicated, she says. They are: trust, respect, optimism, service, and intentionality. Trust must be mutual between leaders and people, and respect also must be afforded by all parties. Optimism allows the untapped potential of every individual to be called forth while intentionality means that everyone must have the intent - the desire - to do the right thing and follow these values.

"This is a pragmatic policy, and if all are addressed in any organization then we have a way of thinking so that we can become what we really are ethically capable of. It's basic to all programs. Cynicism is at an all-time high; trust is at an all-time low. We have to change that."