Cultivating the Art of Leadership

Morality. It's about happiness and suffering. It's about individuality and the collective. And, in a light-hearted way, it was the theme of the movie I watched last night, Chocolat.

Morality is also a big topic when it comes to big-time political debates. And, since politics keeps coming up over dinner table talk of late, the article Is ‘Do Unto Others’ Written Into Our Genes? by Nicholas Wade and Dr. Jonathan Haidt's work keep coming to mind.

Haidt has spent a lot of time studying ideas of morality from around the world and found two systems of moraliy (one being primitive-emotional and the other modern-rational) along with five foundational values that show up across all cultures, including:

1. Prevent harm to another person (individual)
2. Offer fairness and justice to each person (individual)
3. Demonstrate loyalty to group (social)
4. Respect authority and hierarchy (social)
5. Demonstate sense of purity and sanctity (social)

In Haidt's model, some people (predominantly liberals) identify primarily with individual functions of morality and are called "contractualists" -- those who work to fine-tune laws and institutions to maximize freedom of choice and minimize suffering of individuals.

Other people (predominantly conservatives) share these values but also identify with the social functions of morality and are called "beehivers" -- those who work to ensure the survival of the hive, its intrinsic order, and its traditions.

While Haidt talks about religious versus secular along with liberal versus conservative views, his model can be illuminating for leaders. In particular, I liked how Dr. Haidt defined morality:

"Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, practices, institutions, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible."

Replace "social life" with "organizational life" and morality (think: morale) becomes the code that in fact makes work possible. If morale is low, we can use Haidt's five distinctions to assess what's at risk in our moral code.

• We can ask how well are we honoring the individual? How well are we preventing harm and ensuring fairness for each individual?
• We can also assess how well are our organizations serving the collective? How well are we all demonstrating loyalty, being respectful of others, and maintaining integrity with our public commitments?

Over dinner table talk, I'm always interested in how leadership disciplines -- in this case social competence with its emphasis on curiosity, respect, and collaboration -- can contribute to the national dialogue on politics and politicians.

When consulting and coaching, especially in the land of the "rugged individual," it's often helpful for clients to move beyond the "I" and into a more genuine collective sense of purpose and shared values.

If you're curious about where you would land on the five foundations of morality , consider taking Dr. Haidt's moral inventory and drop me a line about your thoughts on this topic!

# posted by Cindy Marteney @ 4:41 PM