09/12/2019

Call Out Unethical Leaders When You See Them

"Selective respect" should be called what it is

We’ve seen selective respect too often. Beyond harming the people who are disrespected, it also destroys trust, and leads to chaotic environments and fear-based cultures. Even though we’ve all seen selective respect in action, we may not have had the vocabulary to describe why it’s wrong (beyond calling it mean or inappropriate). This week I’m digging in to those details. 

I define “selective respect” as doling out respect only under certain circumstances. It is not an ethical leadership behavior since it applies the ethical value of respect conditionally and not universally. 

Examples of Selective Respect in Action:

• Teachers picking on certain students while encouraging others.
• “Cool” kids teasing less popular kids while being chummy with their friends.
• Employees repeating ethnic jokes or otherwise demeaning certain groups of people.
• Public leaders treating people in their groups (political, racial, religious, gender, etc.) kindly while alienating and attacking others. 

The times when respect is applied may be predictable (certain people or groups are predictably respected or not respected) or unpredictable (who is treated respectfully varies from moment to moment).

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from Leading In Context.