WHAT IS ETHICAL LEADERSHIP? Defining ethics and leadership is more than just uniting the individual definitions to create “the art of motivating a group of people to deal with what is good and bad, act towards achieving a moral goal with duty and obligation.” Brown, states “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making” (Brown et al., 2005, p. 120). Ethical leadership requires traits developed through constant practice, exemplification trustworthy, fair, honest behavior, and direct, clear communication of ethical motives in decision making to influence others to do
Whereas Jungers & Gregoire (2013) stated that beneficence is a principle which is a complicated with add in of counselling profession’s ideas regarding exquisite ethical practice. Therefore, the assistance given should lead to the welfare of the client. Counsellors need to have adequate commitment and skills to assist clients. It is the responsibility of a counsellor to provide advice and guidance in order to ensure that clients benefit. During evaluation on clients, counsellors are required to reflect regularly at where to which they have helped in promotion of client change and growth, shown empathy and encouragement towards distressed clients.
As I read the clients message I struggled in identifying how I should address the dilemma at hand and wonder if perhaps not responding right away and seeking assistance from my program supervisor could help me make the right decision. I was cleared that as a social worker I have the moral obligation to consider the ethical implications of my decisions in others and wanted to help the client to the best of my abilities. As I struggled I considered the ethical principals that constituted the dilemma. The first ethical principle being the dignity and worth of the person- to respect your clients right to self-determination. This can be done by helping the client enhance her capacity/ability to make her own decisions and address her own needs.
According to American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics, beneficence is working for the benefit of the others by developing mental health and welfare. The principle of beneficence need counsellors making a decision to the benefits and best interest of the clients based on professional evaluation. Simply stated, counsellor must proactive to do good to client and prevent harm when possible. To boost the quality of the services provided to client, regular and on-going supervision is needed. Systematic monitoring of practice is needed to make sure that the client’s best interests are achieved.
Ethics act as the set standard that measure how good or bad an action is. There is a direct correlation between ethics and leadership because ethics looks into the identity of the leader and their function. Any discussion on ethics and leadership contains two main aspects that should be taken into consideration; the personality and character of leaders and the behaviour and actions of leaders. Leaders are expected to motivate and persuade employees to achieve common goals however, in doing so this must treat their employees with respect and understand that the workforce is a composition of multiple personalities unique to each individual. Effective and ethical leaders operate
Standards of ethical behavior are absorbed by seeing the examples of everybody around you. When many people share similar standards in the society, those standards become values and value system. Value can be expressed in two ways: intrinsic value and instrumental value. Intrinsic value is a value that itself is a good thing and it is pursued for its own sake. Meanwhile, instrumental value is the value that we can use it like a good tool to reach another
As I regard my client as a person I cared about, I might be easily to get influence by my client emotions. This in turn may cause me to be subjective rather than objective as a counsellor. Nevertheless, to not be affected by the emotional issue, I must have high self-awareness with better understanding of myself. It is important to have counsellors to regularly examine their own issues and hone their counselling skills to prevent their personal biases from interfering with their counselling session. In such case, to have an effective counselling, certain strategies could be used.
The counselor needs to make sure to respect clients at all times. For that reason, the counselor should refer to the code of ethics for additional support. The counselor should have ethical and legal considerations when using research in counseling it is for the protection of the client. It is important to know what the population the counselor will be working to see if the research will be effective if there will be any barriers for the client. The responsibility of the counselor is to collect the proper pre and post-test of the client to show a difference when they first started therapy when they finished.
In my life counselor can be focused on loyalty and dedication to the partner, or a loose partnership, but ethical rules prescribe it, respects the moral convictions of their clients. From the point of view of Kliueva NV and Golovacheva NS, it is important to discuss with clients the situation from different angles in order to clarify the idea of the possible scenarios for their future lives. Handling client accountable for what is happening should not be didactic and judgmental, and the perceived Consultant psychologist such situations without evaluation. Psychologist is important to know how to influence his personal values on the counseling process. Philosophy of life and the value of each person is unique, and naive to think that only the counselor may know that can be a good and righteous life.
In my opinion, one of the values a counsellor should possess is to be ethical, adhering to professional standards for the benefit of both the counsellor and the client. When clients seek guidance from a counsellor, they are most likely vulnerable and easily misguided by unethical counsellors since they view the counsellor as an authoritative figure. Hence, some guidelines have been outlined to ensure ethical practice in the counselling profession. An ethical counsellor should do no harm to the client and be responsible for their clients’ wellbeing within the social context of helping (Ivey & Ivey, 2007). These guidelines are linked to important issues such as the competence of the counsellor, in which counsellors should practice within their knowledge, skills and competency boundaries, referring clients to another counsellor or seeking supervision when they lack the competence to handle a client’s case.