Take a look at the list of desirable traits in an ethical leader in ‘4. What is Ethics?’. Are there examples of leaders, managers or teachers in your life where you can see these traits? Or perhaps an absence of these traits? Talk about who this person (or people) are and the effect they’ve had on the people around them.
For this part of the exercise, I’m going to pick a fictional person that I believe would be a good example of leadership, Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard:
As noted before, this is a fictional character. I’ve chosen this character because I have found him to be a good example of what a leader can be in my own life. Honesty is a strong component of this character, throughout the show that he appears in he showcases is commitment to the truth, no matter the cost. For example, For example, when engaging with a court like proceeding about the right to choose for his android subordinate, he made particular note of how the verdict reached would decide how synthetic lifeforms are treated with their organization. It should be noted that he had to be pushed to consider this perspective, but he worked the perspective to its logical conclusion (i.e., it would be a form of slavery). Inspiring would be the area that I would say he is lacking in. While I would not say he is uninspiring, he does not make an effort to get people excited about being a part of his crew. For example, the ship held a Captain Picard Day for the children on his ship and he appeared disinterested and unengaged. It did not appear that he understood that he could inspire people. His competence on the other hand is quite high, he has extensive training in a lot of different aspects of his captaincy and is not afraid to get his hands dirty if needed. Throughout the show he is shown to be knowledgeable and if he doesn’t know, he differs to people who do.
Do you view yourself as capable of leadership? Regardless of if your answer is yes or no, what qualities do you think would most fit your leadership style? What are qualities you would like to cultivate in yourself that might not be present at this stage of your emerging career?
I currently do not believe that I have the abilities to lead and that I would need to do a lot of work on myself before I start to have a confidence for leadership. I would like to believe that I am honest, but I would definitely say that if the truth affects others in a negative way, I would be afraid to tell that truth (even if it would be beneficial overall). I believe the strongest aspect for leadership I have is being able to look forward. I have always considered that I can look forward with the decisions I have to make. With that being said, I also don’t believe I am above rash decision making without long term thinking. I do not think of myself as an inspiring sight. The only part that I would even begin to say is inspiring is my ability (if I’m truly 100% interested and engaged with something) to work a large number of hours on something in a row. I do feel this is stretching the definition of inspiring however. I would also like to believe that I am competent at what I do, but I’m still learning some of the fundamentals, so I have a lot of work to do.
Knowing everything you do now, what is your definition of cultural safety? Contain your answer to one or two sentences.
Cultural safety is having a considered environment that allows for different cultures to be accepted and unhidden. To have cultural safety means that having a different culture isn’t looked down upon, but instead seen for the positive it is.
