Step up to the Mark

Being a leader means taking responsibility for the success of others. One of the keys to doing well in any profession is living ethically, inside and outside of work. The only way for a leader to demonstrate the importance of ethics to others and the organization is to teach by example.

For education leaders, the goal is to promote fair and equitable access to education resources for everyone, regardless of situation or background. Achieving this goal requires creating an ethical climate that communicates a sense of values, norms, behaviors and attitudes built on respect, openness and fairness.

The primary reason why it’s important to have ethical leadership in education is the power of example to impress upon the entire education community the rewards of behaving ethically. The United Kingdom’s Chartered College of Teaching established the Ethical Leadership Commission to develop a framework for ethical leadership in education. Among the tenets of the framework is to promote ethical behavior with every decision education leaders make and every action they take.