Unevolved and Evolved Ethics (eBook)

Chapter 1:
Why a Theory of Ethics and Leadership?

Many years ago, I became fascinated with a leadership quote attributed to Bennis and Nanus. They wrote, “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.”1 This quote led me to wonder how leaders do the right thing. Further, what helps a leader determine the right thing to do? For that matter, what is it that helps any of us know the right thing to do, and why do so many of us seem unable to know or do the right thing?

Over the intervening years, I’ve come to two important conclusions. First, I’ve concluded that underlying each example of a true leader, whether famous or relatively unknown, is an ethic that guides and motivates the leader’s acts and behaviors. This ethic guides the leader’s choices and motivates the leader’s acts and behaviors. Second, I’ve come to the broader conclusion that each individual has an ethic that guides their choices and motivates their acts and behaviors. Each has an ethic that guides and motivates every act and behavior in the individual’s personal, professional, and social lives.

I believe this ethic begins developing at birth and continues through stages as the individual passes through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. This developing or developed ethic determines whether or not the individual can or will consistently demonstrate right, correct, and appropriate acts or behaviors. Further, this ethic impacts every relationship with friends, neighbors, employers, co-workers, loved ones, and spouses. It impacts every relationship with clubs, civic groups, churches, and any other organization the individual joins throughout their life. It even impacts which relationships the individual will enter and why. Finally, this ethic impacts the individual’s physical, psychological, and spiritual health and well-being.

At the same time, I’ve also concluded that individuals do not have multiple ethics. For instance, there is not a public ethic and a private ethic. There is not a personal ethic and a professional or work ethic. Each individual has one ethic that develops as the individual matures from infancy to adulthood. This ethic and the acts and behaviors it guides is more restrained or constrained in some situations or circumstances and less constrained or restrained in others, but each individual has only one ethic. For example, in a work or professional environment, there may be guidelines, policies, standards or laws that restrain or constrain the ethic and the acts and behaviors of individuals working in that environment.

Since each individual has only one ethic, an individual who knows the right thing to do in their personal life and can consistently do the right thing will also know the right thing to do in their professional or work life. Conversely, an individual who does not know or cannot identify the right thing to do in their personal life, or who cannot consistently do the right thing in their personal life, will often fare no better in their professional or work life. Society requires guidelines, standards, codes, policies, and laws for this second group, those who do not know the right thing to do or cannot consistently do the right thing. These guidelines, standards, codes, policies and laws delineate what is right, correct, and appropriate and what is wrong, incorrect, and inappropriate.

Society also needs these guidelines, policies, codes, and laws to limit or minimize harm that often results from the acts and behaviors of those who do not know the right thing to do. Society can prosecute and even incarcerate those who fail to follow the laws intended to limit or minimize harm to Others and the collective whole. Indeed, it is for those who do not know the right thing to do or cannot consistently do the right thing that many professions need ethics training to increase the possibility that everyone will follow the rules.

Unfortunately, for this country and the world, I believe the most dominant ethic today is an ethic I term the Unevolved Ethic. I term this ethic “Unevolved” because it leads society in general, and business, entertainment (to include sports), and politics in particular, into a destructive pattern of self-interest, self-indulgence, power, greed, and avarice.

When I use the terms business, entertainment, sports, and politics, I recognize each term represents a large collection of individuals engaged in a similar or closely related activity or profession, with each member of the general collection having an ethic. For example, when I speak of business, I recognize that business is comprised of many, many individuals; each of whom has an ethic that guides and motivates their acts and behaviors. The same is true for entertainment, sports, politics, and virtually every other human endeavor. Each is a collection of individuals and each individual within the collection has an ethic that guides and motivates their acts and behaviors.

The Unevolved Ethic motivates acts and behaviors that always primarily serve the interest, welfare, and good of Self and that demonstrate little or no regard or consideration for anyone beyond Self. This ethic drives acts and behaviors that fail to consider impact or consequences except as those acts and behaviors serve the interest, welfare, or good of Self. Further, this ethic motivates acts and behaviors that are, to some degree or extent, wrong, incorrect, inappropriate, unethical, and immoral. This ethic is powered by a morality that is constantly ready to justify, rationalize, explain, and excuse wrong, incorrect, and inappropriate acts and behaviors so long as Self benefits. This Unevolved Ethic is often evidenced in power, fear, coercion, manipulation, predation, and the pursuit of wealth and material gain. However, it is also evidenced in the widespread lack of consideration and regard for other people and even the lack of regard for the planet on which we live. Unfortunately, I believe this ethic is growing stronger and spreading every day.

The Unevolved Ethic spreads in multiple ways. For instance, it spreads from one generation to the next. It also spreads through modern communications technology. It spreads through radio waves and fiber optic cables. It spreads through satellite relays and through the internet. It now reaches into virtually every region and country around the globe. It reaches into every city, town, village, and most if not all homes. It also spreads through music, movies, and television programming. It spreads through a preoccupation with the latest excesses of favorite celebrities, be they from the world of business, sports, entertainment, or politics. It spreads through marketing campaigns and advertising. Its reach is boundless. However, there is a second ethic also present in the world. This second ethic is the Evolved Ethic.

The Evolved Ethic points the way to the right thing to do. The Evolved Ethic guides and motivates right, correct, and appropriate acts and behaviors and consistently motivates acting on those choices. The Evolved Ethic guides and motivates the acts and behaviors of those who consistently manifest right, correct, and appropriate acts and behaviors. This ethic is powered by a morality that encourages the transcendence of Self and the interest, welfare, and good of Self in favor of the good of Others and the collective whole. Further, this morality powers the ability and willingness to minimalize or ignore harm that results for Self when acting in the interest, welfare, and good of Others and the collective whole. Finally, the Evolved Ethic offers the possibility for a better future, a better tomorrow for humankind and the planet as a whole.

I chose “Evolved” to describe this ethic for two reasons. First, I believe the willingness and ability to place the interest, welfare, and good of Others and the collective whole above that of Self is an evolutionary step in ethical development for any individual. The willingness and ability to place regard and consideration for Others and the collective whole above regard and consideration of Self is an evolutionary step. Second, I believe the continued evolutionary fortune of humankind and the survival of the planet on which humankind lives depends on our willingness and ability to reverse the spread of the Unevolved Ethic and to encourage the spread of the Evolved Ethic.

For clarity, I do need to take a moment here to explain a term I’ve used several times already. This is the term “collective whole.” “Collective whole” refers to levels, with each level above Self and each level broader than the previous level. The collective whole always resides one level above the level of singular or individual Self, but includes Self. Similarly, the collective whole at each level is broader than the previous level. Finally, the collective whole can take various forms. For instance, the collective whole might be a family that includes individual Self. The collective whole might also refer to a sports team or work team that includes individual Self. As one more example, the collective whole might refer to a neighborhood or community that includes individual Self. Each of these examples refers to a collective whole that includes Self and takes a different form. At any given moment, Self is included in many, many different levels and forms of collective whole. However, and consistent with this explanation of collective whole, the term Self may refer to one individual Self, but Self may also refer to a collective form of Self. Allow me to explain.

At each successive level above individual Self, the broader collective whole that includes Self becomes a collective form of...