Ethics, Values, and Moral Courage with Dr. Christa Johnson

In this episode of The Leadership Initiative, Host Jen Shanahan is joined by Dr. Christa Johnson, Associate Professor of Teaching in Philosophy and Assistant Director of Leadership Studies at The Ohio State University. Together, the two discuss the nuances of principled leadership by challenging traditional notions and urging leaders to grapple with the gray areas where values often conflict.

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Guest, Dr. Christa Johnson: 

“...When I think about principles, instead of thinking about the sort of hard and fast rules, I think it's important to think about the values that you hold as a leader, that a company holds, or whatever it is that you are leading. Figuring out what it is that drives you? What is it that you care about? What is it for? What is it like defining you as a person or your company as a company, such that if you acted against that, we'd sort of be like, who are you anymore?...So, I think it's really important to figure out what your values are as a leader, what your values are of what you're leading. 

And then principled leadership...is not 100% always sticking to those, because you're going to have values that are going to conflict. And so, I think for me, it is keeping those things front of mind in all of your decisions. It is always recognizing how your decisions will affect those values, both the sort of identity forming ones and...the ones that are sort of who you want to be in the world, what drives you, and thinking about whether you are supporting those or harming those values. And then grappling with that.  

Because again, sometimes you might have to make [a] tough decision that isn’t [immediately] helpful for your values, but that maybe in the long term is what you needed to do in order to sustain [them]. So, principal leadership is just never losing sight of that for me."