The leadership sessions we took part in throughout the course of the programme were informative, insightful, and thought-provoking. The two modules we took on Ethical Leadership with Harvard Business School were particularly interesting. It was great to discuss with Laidlaw colleagues about each of our understandings of what it means to maintain your morals while leading and if differs from ethics. Using different case studies and real-life examples, we got to discuss if being ethical was subjective depending on the situation, or is it a one-size-fits-all.
It wasn’t until I travelled to Uganda that I think I properly examined and scrutinised ethical leadership. Being the nature of the Programme and the Leadership in Action experience, I had planned a project before I embarked on my journey. This project was discussed in depth with the organisation and I thought I knew exactly what I had signed up to do. It wasn’t until I landed that I realised I really understood nothing at all, to be completely honest. You can read about a place: its history, its politics; you can watch videos on YouTube, read travel guides and blogs, but it’s not until you set foot in the place and talk to those that live there that you can even begin to understand what life is like there. To quote Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”
Until I met the team at WORI and my host family, saw the domestic violence shelter, and had many conversations with those who I lived and worked with that I began to piece together what life is actually like there and what help is to them. How would it be ethical of me to arrive in Uganda, lead a project, without ever trying to understand who the people are I am hoping to help? Just because I am fortunate to have grown up and to live in a developed country, receive a university education, and was afforded the chance to go to Uganda, does not mean I know more than them. It was something I became very aware of very early into my experience and it fuelled me more to want to do something that would actually help.
My change of project was a result of talking, observing, and trying to understand these experiences which I am so fortunate is not the norm in ‘my world’, and use the skills and knowledge I have learned in the Programme and throughout my life and combine them to create a worthwhile project. To me, ethical leadership is never assuming you know best and that no number of qualifications trumps someone’s own experiences, especially in their own country. I was so lucky to have been surrounded by people in Uganda who wanted to talk and were so patient with any questions I had. From understanding why children are sent to boarding school if the family can afford it, where harmful attitudes towards menstruation and the women’s place stems from, to many other cultural intricacies you cannot find on any Wikipedia page, it allowed me to become a more mindful leader.
This realisation I came to about ethical leadership really highlighted to me how lucky I am to be part of the Laidlaw programme. To not only get to learn about ethical leadership in a formal setting, but then also get to go out and apply it to real life and further my understanding is an experience that is invaluable to me.
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