Title: Ethical Leadership Matters
Page: Success Strategies
Month: September 2003
“Ethical, effective leadership,”seems like such a lofty, big concept that we sometimes fail to consider what the smaller details are that add up to its presence, or absence.
The Enrons and WorldComs illustrate the flip side of doing the right things right, but those seemed like collective “THEY made me do it” stories. It was a case of mega organizations with mega-ethical breeches.
But individual ethics are where all lapses begin, and it is therefore worth studying those who do the wrong things wrong, with the hopes of learning from, and avoiding, their mistakes.
A debacle involving the 2nd highest paid public university president in the nation in the last few weeks illustrates how easily top leaders as individuals get “sucked in” by greed and general lack of ethics, and the explosive consequences thereafter.
John Shumaker resigned as President of the University of Tennessee after a hailstorm of criticism about his personal ethics. Sadly for the State, Shumaker had replaced J. Wade Gilley, who was romantically linked to a subordinate. Gilley resigned hurriedly amidst denials and later, it was proven, outright lies. (The subordinate herself was later discovered to have embellished her resume….see how quickly we can weave an intricate web of ethical dilemmas in just one organization?)
An Aug. 18 audit revealed personal spending excesses by Shumaker, which were charged to the university despite his $365,000 base salary. (His total compensation package totaled $733,000.) For example, he ordered an expensive remodeling of the executive mansion, despite its having been renovated a few years ago. Among the items he charged to the university were a $7,000 Persian rug and a $20,000 closet system for his son’s room.
The big concerns, however, were his lavish travel tabs. He ended up reimbursing the university $25,000 for flights last week. He utilized the UT airplane for personal use as well, including several flights to Birmingham where a former woman colleague from his seven-year-tenure as President of the University of Louisivlle is now president of the University of Alabama.
Another questionable area was a $300,000 no-bid contract with a friend to develop international programs at UT.
As the story unfolds, it is coming to light that Shumaker’s very existence at UT was founded upon an unethical basis. It is alleged by his ex-wife Lucy that Shumaker was given a list of the questions ahead of time that would be asked in the final interview. Commented the newspaper The Nashville Scene in an editorial, “at a time when the state has been forced to cut costs in many state departments by 9 percent across the board, and at a time when the UT brass has had to significantly increase tuition to make ends meet (9 percent for undergrads), Shumaker took out a shovel, buried a hole, jumped in it and then kept digging. It has been astonishing to watch a man commit such public hara-kari.”
What are the lessons about ethical, effective leadership we can learn from this public spectacle?
1. Personal values are always at the core of ethical lapses. t is obvious that Shumaker has blatantly extravagant tastes. While there is nothing wrong with enjoying the finer things in life, ethical outcomes are usually rooted in simple values like conservative approaches to life, excellent personal relationships (unlike Shumaker’s contentious divorce proceedings), and a focused desire for selfless service.
2. You cannot out-stubborn the light of day….ethical lapses WILL come to the surface. Yet, Shumaker’s behavior was arrogant in the face of the unfolding chaos. He tried to skirt the press, but as The Nashville Scene pointed out, reporters are “like locusts without the charm.” Questions like “why have you used the UT jet nine times to fly to Birmingham?” were met with answers like “You have to fuel up somewhere.” Eventually, however, the whole story forced his resignation in disgrace.
3. The culture of ethics starts at the top. The UT officials who met multiple times with Shumaker before he was hired (unlike with other candidates), and who also allegedly gave him the unethical advantage of advance review of questions, will likely be facing the “locusts” next. They started Shumaker’s Presidency on a smarmy level by their secretive behavior and favor of this candidate, and it was inevitable that this would set up an atmosphere of doing the wrong things wrong.
4. Personal ethics’ breeches have far-reaching consequences. Shumaker is a talented and capable education executive who had a wonderful plan of action for the university. His mantra was “performance,” and he had lined out a scorecard for heightened expectations in five broad categories, including attracting more research grants and student/faculty achievement. His personal ethics’ lapses, however, killed all of that wonderful potential. His behavior has humiliated his family, the 40,000 students at UT and the faculty, and has effectively put the administration of the university in limbo. This is the sad reality of what personal lapses of ethics: there are consequences too far-reaching to measure. For example, who knows if Shumaker’s talent for increasing research grants might not have led to a cure for cancer? While this example is unlikely, there would undoubtedly have been good that would have come of Shumaker’s talents had his lack of ethics not ended it all.
5. Ethical and effective, then, do go together. The examples in the last point illustrate that someone can be very effective, as Shumaker was, but without ethics, it becomes a moot point. Therefore, “ethical, effective leadership” is inextricably bound together. EDITOR’S NOTE: See related article “The Effective Leader Lives by the Highest Standards of Honesty and Integrity” in this issue.
