Are you an ethical leader?

In my 30+ years of corporate life, I can count on one hand the number of true leaders I have met. Are you a true leader, or just a company man/woman? Let's look at which decisions you would make.

Scenario 1: Layoffs. The caproate C-suite has asked you to lay off 10% of your workforce, to save $10 million on the bottom line to make your company books stronger for an upcoming public corporate merger or acquisition. This equates to to 20 long term employees losing their job. As a result, the stock price of your company goes up 3%, resulting in a $20 million valuation increase of your company. So, is this the right thing to do for the company and shareholders? Or does the company actually hurt its longtime prospects by letting go of the employees? Who benefits the most financially from this, especially in the short term? What if the execs making this decision actually got a bonus for cutting these costs? What if their salaries were actually boosted by these layoffs? Would you ask the execs to take a payout to keep others employed or would you acquiesce to keep your job?

Scenario 2: Your sales team has met or exceeded every challenge and quota it was given. Your top people have spent 10 years establishing relationships and a very profitable client line. The CFO wants to cut operating costs to show even more profit. This means you are to cut the commission schedule for these top salespeople. And you are to fire 3 of the top salespeople and hand the accounts to junior reps. Do you comply, so that your division hits new operating margins, resulting in bonuses for you and your bosses? Or do you recognize that customers buy from the sales person, not the product? The real difference between products is far more negligible than the relationship they have with the salesperson? That it is none of the CFO's business whether the salesperson works 1 hour or 1000 hours to generate the sales?

Scenario 3. You built a successful team. The results were a team effort, even though you as their leader gets the accolades. You move up in the company as a result. What happens to you team? Do you bring them on up with you? Do you try to forge a new team with other members? Some hybrid approach?

If you're in this for personal gain and recognition, you represent the majority of today's "leaders". Do you fight for what's right for your customers before automatically complying with senior management? Are you more loyal to your team or your bosses? Is the company's near term results more important that long term success? How you define and stand by your priorities defines what kind of leader you truly are.