Moral Muteness

There can often be situations in which people do not say what needs to be said. Especially in personal relationships, it can be perceived as being easier to keep silent and avoid conflict with a loved one. However, it is important to note that it is just as easy to do this in more professional settings - where there are a lot of pressures and complex dynamics involved. In a professional or leadership position, where ethics is an imperative part of positive change, choosing not to speak up against speech or decisions you know to be immoral, only hamper progress.

I have been guilty of keeping my mouth closed in situations that required moral fortitude on my part. At work we are required to interact with a diverse clientele, both racially and culturally. As a manager, it is extremely important to me that all people that walk through the door are treated fairly and equally by my staff. I ensure that I discuss cultural differences to try and remove some of the misunderstandings that often surround dislike of cultures dissimilar to our own. However, I have less effect on another manager that I work with. We have worked together for a long time, and while I enjoy our professional relationship, we carry different values. I have often tried to impress on her the importance of moral integrity, but I believe her personal experiences have led her to more negative reactions regarding certain cultures. There have been situations where I hear her speaking of a certain group of people in a less than flattering way, and rather than get into a disagreement at work, I will stay quiet.

This act of moral muteness only handicaps our organization. I know that my responsibility is to speak truth into existence, but in some situations, I feel helpless to change or alter someone else's perspective. I value being assertive, but only if that actions effects positive change. The acquisition of new information is a necessity to ethical leadership. However, sometimes you cannot change the opinions of others. This shows a distinct difference in management and leadership. Management does not always act ethically, because the goals are not always moral. Relationship leadership values ethics as part of the process. 

Implicit Biases

Harvard's Implicit Bias quizzes are meant to raise awareness of unconscious tendencies we have toward a certain type of person in comparison to another person; however, I do not feel that the methodology behind the organization of the quizzes achieved the intent. Often, memorizing certain words and associations allows the taker to overlook natural inclinations to particular responses. I took three online quizzes through https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit: Gender-Career IAT, Weight IAT, and Weapons IAT. Two of the quizzes showed weak or no association for a certain preference. The Weapons IAT results showed "a moderate association of Black Americans with Weapons compared to White Americans." I was fairly certain going into the Weight AIT test that my results would show a preference for thin people versus fat people, but my results certainly did not indicate this. The Weapons IAT seemed to be testing whether the quiz taker viewed Black Americans as being more "aggressive" than White Americans. I think this test was much more prone to mistakes than the other two tests, which altered the results.

I want to take this time to reflect more upon the intent behind the results rather than the results themselves. I believe many people to be unaware of implicit biases in everyday dealings with other individuals. Often depending on our upbringing, personal experience and our reaction to it, as well as cultural tendencies we are inclined to treat some people with more respect or deference than others. In regards to leadership, biases can hinder a leader's ability to inclusiveness as well as ethical treatment of all participants in the leadership process. A leader is also less likely to consider the opinions of someone whom they do not respect as strongly. Taking these quizzes forces you to consider the complexity behind interactions with others and your role - especially your ability to chance perhaps unconscious reactions.

In addition to attending school full-time, I also work as an assistant manager at an apartment community. Fair Housing, the federal laws that seek to ensure fairness in housing practices for many protected classes, is a big part of that we do. It seems like across the industry, professionals are afraid to be perceived as violating Fair Housing and thus there are many measures in place to make it - at least appear - to be fair and equal across the board. I would argue that it's not. Most properties and the management in place hold biases, especially against certain races or ethnicities as well as cultural/religious traditions. These biases are often based on negative personal experiences with individuals that have these attributes such as the condition an apartment in left in, a disagreement, a cultural misunderstanding or even ignorance. I always make the effort to learn about religions or cultures different than my own to understand why certain things may happen and them impress that upon my staff. In this way, even despite my own inherent biases, I use education to cancel out or lessen their impact. Speaking positively or giving an alternative viewpoint is an essential point on creating a more ethical environment where progressive change as a greater opportunity to occur.

Paige

How "To Sir, With Love" shows relational leadership

This is quite an older movie, but one of my favorites from when I was younger. "To Sir, With Love," featuring Sidney Poitier, is about a London school teacher that goes above and beyond in trying to enrich the lives of his students. Many of the other teachers - even the principal - have lost hope in these kids; they are considered lost causes. Rather than let his students walk over him, Poitier's character Mark Thackeray makes them respect him by in turn showing them respect and setting expectations.

Because of the age of the film, there were not many clips online to choose from. This clip, though not the greatest example of leadership as opposed to some of the other scenes, highlights many aspects of relational leadership. His speech is purposeful: he indicates the guidelines for his class and how he expects the students to interact with each other. He expects the men to call the women, "Miss." He incorporates inclusiveness: not as much in this particular scene, but as his students start to respect him, they begin to have more open ended conversations in which he actually learns valuable lessons from his students. In this clip, he says that they will listen to him without interruption and then someone will have the chance to speak without interruption. He is empowering: both his commanding presence and his genuine commitment to helping his students achieve point to this. His tone is clear and concise. His interactions with the students are ethical: because Thackeray is genuine in his desire for them not to fail, he teaches them the right way to handle situations and interact with others. Most of these students are drop-outs from other schools and have few prospects. He tries to reach them in terms they can understand. He talks about dating and the proper way to deal with the opposite sex. Later in the film, he encourages and assists some of the more interested students in getting jobs.

Poitier's character certainly did not set himself up to be a leadership. Out of concern for the dismal lives of these students, he took a personal interest in their success. Leadership can blossom from a desire to do good, as it does in, "To Sir, With Love."

If you haven't seen this movie, I certainly suggest it!

-Paige