LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS ON THE COLLEGE CAMPUS

by Herb Rubenstein, Chief Strategy Officer
Steve Abramowitz, President
THE AEGIS INSTITUTE

A recent study concluded that ethics among high school students has declined over the past several years. 74% of students in 2002 stated that they have chated on an exam at least once in the past year, up from 61% in 1992. Astonishingly, 38% of high school students say they have stolen something from a store, up from 31% in 1992. In addition, the Josephson Institute of Ethics study reported recently in USA Today stated that from 2000 to 2002 those who said they would be willing to lie to get a good job increased from 25% to 39%. We know of no similar studies of leadership among high school students.

We define leadership as “the creation and fulfillment of an opportunity by honorable means.” The reason the action has to be by honorable means is that is the only way in our society the leader can repeat on a regular basis his or her actions and the leader’s followers can repeat the leaders actions over a long period of time. Martha Stewart is learning this lesson today. Leadership is about creating the circumstances where others can repeat the actions of the leader or actions similar to those of the leader. Over time, if a leader’s actions are not by honorable means, they can not be repeated, by the leader or by a follower.

Does these studies on falling ethical standards in high schools mean that we can expect this trend to show up in colleges over the next few years. Amitai Etzioni, who taught ethics at Harvard and is currently a professor at George Washington University has written in the Washington Post that his studies show that ethics declines in students in MBA programs during their two years in business school. We might begin to ask, are we teaching students in high school, in college and in graduate school that ethics is not important? And when it comes to teaching leadership, there are virtually no leadership courses in high school and very few leadership courses in most undergraduate college programs of science, math, engineering and pre-med. Only now there are just starting to be a few leadership courses offered at the graduate school level in public policy, business administration and other graduate school curricula.

On college campuses leadership usually means doing something worthwhile from a position of leadership. Being President or a leader of a student organization, being involved in volunteer activities, participating in student government, sports or a fraternity or sorority are all examples of leadership on college campuses. We agree that leadership involves doing something, but that is only a small part of leadership as we see it. Leadership also means taking personal responsibility for the actions that one takes and the results that occur from the actions leaders take.

Some time ago, and we can not pinpoint when, leadership and ethics became separate. Possibly as early as Greek mythology, the Gods had leadership roles, though many were not ethical as we use the word today. We believe it is now best to view leadership and ethics as basically the same thing. You would not think of your bicycle or car without thinking about one of its essential components, the tires. Leadership without an ethical base is simply a bike or car with no tires.

College life is short, occasionally only 2 or 4 years and participating in a particular organization at college usually lasts only a year or two. In spite of this short time horizon, a leader of an organization must not only “do” things to help the organization along, the leader must also create an “organizational ethic” for the organization. This idea, creating an organizational ethic, is not taught in many colleges and universities today. It is lacking from the leadership literature. But it is essential.

As a leader, you must be absolutely clear as to what you stand for, what the organization you lead stands for and you must become great at communicating this to others. Any organization that you lead in college or elsewhere should be known more for what it stands for and less for what it does. For example, if you lead an organization that provides mentoring services to K-12 students who are not succeeding in school, people may hear about your organization’s mentoring services and they may want to participate based on their learning about your activities. For example, if you lead an organization that 1) stands for significantly improving the lives of young people in impoverished areas of our country; 2) provides the mentoring services and follows up to see to it that the children who receive your organization’s services actually improve over time and actually appreciate your services you are light years ahead of an organization that merely sends a mentor to work with a K-12 student on an occasional basis. If your organization is so committed to improving the lives of K-12 students that you keep records of your organizations success so you can be sure that you are providing your services in the most effective manner possible, then you can create a strong reputation for your organization. The rule is that organizations with a strong organizational ethic and whose leaders work hard at creating a strong and well deserved reputation for that organization will be the organizations that grow most quickly and make the greatest difference among all of the student organizations on campus. This rule also applies to after college organizations as well.

To create a strong organizational ethic, a leader must stand on a “foundation” or a clear, easily articulated “platform.” Organizations must also have a platform that serves as its foundation. The leader’s job is to fuse his or her platform with the organization’s platform. This is the true essence of leadership. On college campuses, once an organization adopts a platform, then what the organization should do on daily basis becomes an easy choice. Your organization’s reputation for doggedly pursuing a particular goal is what makes your organization’s stand out, even if it is only for the semester or few semesters when you are the leader. As a leader you will play a decisive role in helping select the next leader of any organization you lead. Since “like attracts like” whatever type of leader you are will naturally impact who will follow you as leader.

Leadership is not a gift. It is not a trait. It is a talent that must be nurtured, developed and the best way to do this is to test it on a regular basis. Look at the organizations where you belong and if the leadership there has not set forth a clear vision, a clear platform for the organization, then challenge the current leadership to do this. Life is too short on college campuses to let organizations struggle without clear visions and clear platforms. Leadership is demanding. But the good news is that while the best reward of leadership is organizations that function well and make a difference, a second best reward of leadership is the ability of one person by taking leadership roles to become a strong leader, with an excellent sense of his or her own identity.

And that, once developed, is a gift.

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