Hackett & Wang (quoted in Elkington, 2017) list courage as one of the six values of an ethical leader, defining it as
the ability to act in ways that rise above the expediency of the moment to capitalise on the power and impact of the long-term systemic view. Courage is the capacity to act in a manner that serves the greater good, when there is immense pressure to serve self and the bottom line . . .
This description of ethical courage fits the actions of the former Trillian chief executive whose story was told recently in The Daily Maverick. The unnamed woman approached former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela with details of how the Gupta-linked consultancy group Trillian knew in advance that former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene would be fired, and how the Guptas planned thereafter to exploit links with the Treasury.
The whistleblower has stood her ground amid persecution and prosecution. Her former employer has vilified her and laid criminal charges against her. Major organisations have volunteered to carry her legal costs.
She fits how Adv Madonsela herself referred to ethical courage a year ago (Nicolaides, 2016), when she said that having ethical courage means doing what one values above what one fears:
What I have learnt with my team is that even the most decent of human beings face ethical dilemmas. It’s not always easy to choose between right and wrong, it’s often choosing between right and more right.
All this got me thinking: What does ethical courage look like on a daily basis?
John McCain, a former US presidential candidate and POW in Vietnam, said in an essay based on his book Why Courage Matters that there are two prerequisites to courage. The first is fear.
By fear, I mean . . . the kind that wars with our need to take action but which we overcome because we value something or someone more than our own well-being. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity to act despite our fears.
The second prerequisite is love.
You get courage by loving something more than your own well-being. When you love virtue, when you love freedom, when you love other people, you find the strength to demand courage of yourself and of those who aspire to lead you. Only then will you find the courage, as Eleanor Roosevelt put it, “to do the thing you think you cannot do’’.
Let’s translate that into plain speak, and apply it in an organisational context.
Firstly, courage is a personal trait – an alignment of your words and actions with your values. “The sense of obligation to do what is right is internal as opposed to the external pressure of the law” (Rossouw, 2015).
It’s also a personal decision to flip your fear (a concept I read about in Costa, 2016) to fuel your courage. Because you love, believe in and stand for a principle, a virtue, the right way of doing things more than you fear.
There are three things you can do to display ethical courage in your average working day (Putnam, 2013).
- Choose your response to an unethical suggestion. Being ethical may just be, daily, resisting doing the wrong thing.
It’s usually just you and customer, boss, or vendor face-to-face or on the other end of the phone. The first level of action is your initial reaction. Saying something like, “Sorry, I just can’t ethically do it that way, but I think another way would be . . . ” puts on the brakes right away and points to an alternative solution. This is a courageous, ethical reflex. In order for this quick response to become a natural reflex, you need to be prepared in your mind and character and be ready for a response.
- Approach the person with whom you have a problem.
This is not easy. Most of us don’t naturally confront people. It certainly feels like a life or death struggle. But remember, courage is about facing difficulty without being overcome by fear.
- Find help. Be a whistleblower like the Trillian employee. Use the procedures at your workplace, like reporting the incident to a hotline, or, if there are no procedures or you feel unsafe using them, to an external party like a legal expert or auditor who will know how to steer you in the right direction.
Especially when someone else’s rights or property are at play, you need to take things to the next level. Rather than think of yourself as a “tattle-tale,” consider yourself a courageous “change-agent for good”. Again, this is not easy. Be ready. Having someone fight your battle for you may be harder than fighting it yourself.
Lastly, your organisation can be courageous. It costs a business, school or college to be ethical and to adhere to principles of corporate governance when it may be cheaper, more expedient and convenient not to.
You should know what your organisation values if it takes ethics seriously: its corporate values will be published and easily accessible, its Code of Ethics – or in a school, the constitution or Code of Conduct for a governing body or the Code of Professional Ethics of the SA Council for Educators (SACE) – will set out the principles the organisation stands for and how employees are expected to embody these.
If you’re a director of a business, you have an extra layer of responsibility as articulated in the corporate governance recommendations of King IV, and published by the Institute of Directors. Each director should display five moral duties which include the courage “to take the risks associated with directing and controlling . . . and the courage to act with integrity in all Board decisions and activities“ (Rossouw, 2015).
References
Comrie, S. 2017. The woman who blew the whistle. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-08-09-amabhunhgane-the-woman-who-blew-the-whistle/#.WYwWCFWg_IU
Costa, K. 2016. Know your Why. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Elkington, R. 2017. Ethical Leadership at the Speed of VUCA: Visionary Leadership in a Turbulent World. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing Limited.
McCain, J. September, 2004. Why Guts Matter. In https://www.fastcompany.com/50692/search-courage
Nicolaides, G. 2016. Ethical courage means doing what one values, above what one fears. http://ewn.co.za/2016/05/30/Ethical-means-choosing-between-degrees-of-whats-right
Putnam, M. 2013. Ethics in Action: The Courage to Stand Up. https://www.globalethicsuniversity.com/articles/ethicsinaction
Rossouw, G. 2015. Business Ethics fifth edition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press
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