Leadership is not easy—it gets messy and sometimes you have to fight yourself in order to fight to help others. We condemn people who perpetuate stereotypes, but stereotypes start with us. We are afraid of “the other” and we condemn people before we even meet them or even see their faces. When we hear someone is a murder or a drug dealer, we automatically assume what they look like, what their character is like, and so forth. But, in actuality, we don’t know anything about them. In leadership, we must approach people with an open-mind and fight our own pre-conceived thoughts about them. You have to be able to dig deeper into the situation and be comfortable being uncomfortable and seeing the “ugly” in life. Leading involves sometimes approaching a situation from a different angle. For example, instead of seeking to imprison criminals and public offenders, Adam Foss realized that these “criminals” are no better after their jail sentence than when they went in and commonly revert back to their same lifestyle of crime. He chose a different way to lead—he took the time to understand how and why this “criminal” got where they were rather than condemning them and making them another statistic of criminal activity. He explained that each person is set on a trajectory for better or for worse and we have the opportunity to influence and change people’s lives for the better—understanding this and acting to work for the good of humanity and changing the course of people’s lives is leadership. We are participants in a current civil rights movement and we must be leaders and seek justice, help, and healing for all instead of taking an easier and more socially standardized route.
Convicted personal values, integrity, and ethical leadership are interconnected. Personal values build your character and determine what you hold dear while integrity is the honesty with yourself and the world to stay true to those values. Ethical leadership is conducting yourself according to your personal standards and integrity and guiding people in the same way. Adam Foss exemplifies this as his values developed from youth built his integrity and ethics as well. Each component morphed together throughout his life experiences and created his ethical leadership. He is a defender of values, integrity, and lives according to ethical behavior and defends the rights of others. He demonstrates that it is a matter of integrity and ethical leadership to stand up for human rights and help people help themselves. Once you are aware of injustice or anything for that matter, you can no longer be ignorant and turn a blind eye—you must find resources to help you help others. Acting according to values, integrity, and ethics, you can literally make the world a better place if only for one person and lead others to do the same.
There are many concepts and mindsets that can be applied to my leadership practice. Taking the time to understand the people and how they got to where they are in the first place is vital to building relationships and changing people’s lives. When I understand people, I can help put them on a better and more positive path. With the mindset that I can change the trajectory of people’s life, I can be civil rights activist now. Understanding that the culture we grow up in greatly influences what becomes of us helps me realize that I have to be an active leader. I have to be a participative force in order to change the course of a life. I need to be the change I want to see—I have lead by example. Leadership is a deliberate choice and lifestyle that involves helping and building people up and, therefore, changing the world. By applying these concepts to my leadership, I hope to change the world too.