Colin Powell: Ethical Leadership

Colin Powell displayed many characteristics of an ethical leader through his actions, decisions and behaviors, during a military coup in the Philippines. As described in his book, Colin Powell was faced with a tough decision to make. There was an attempted military coup in the Philippines, against President Corazon Aquino. The concern was the Philippine military would join the coup and bomb the presidential palace. (Military, n.d.) President Aquino called on the U.S. military to bomb a nearby air base, to prevent this from occurring, and the White House situation room gave the okay. Colin Powell wasn’t sure this was the best way to go about things. He collaborated with another military leader to come up with an alternative. (Powell,

My flight finally had a day off coming up; something they had been looking forward to. A day before our break, the operations section told me they needed my flight members to participate in a particular volunteer opportunity. The reason they needed us, was because the people that made the volunteer commitment weeks before, backed out. Valuing the opinions and views of my flight members, I used intellectual stimulation to empower my flight sergeant to help me come up with a plan that would meet the intent of the operations section, while not impeding on, my flight’s upcoming break. Instead of negatively affecting my entire flight, I used my critical thinking skills of being a free thinker, and not conforming to what I should have done. I was able to use emotional flexibility and put my emotions aside, while considering the emotions of my flight as well as the operations section. Doing this, I was able to vary my approach and come up with the requested number of volunteers the operations section requested. Utilizing cognitive flexibility, and developing an understanding of the situation, I decided to give them one third of the volunteers they were asking for, and gave them a plan to come up with the rest. It’s not always wise, to go against decisions leadership has made. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I used the consequence test when thinking through this process. I considered the consequences and what the best and worst outcomes would be. Although some of the volunteers came from my flight, the majority did not, and my guys were able to enjoy some much needed time