“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it” said the Ancient Roman Stoic Epictetus. Born into enslavement in 50 AD, he eventually gained freedom and lived as a teacher in Rome until he was exiled and died some 85 years later in the Greek city of Nicopolis.
Stoicism is a powerful philosophy based on self control and acceptance. Central to its worldview is the idea that it is not by talking about ethics that we become an ethical person, it is by modelling an ethical life. This simple idea is critical for all of us in leadership.
To be clear, it’s easy to stand above everybody and proclaim with a judgemental voice that one should lead by example, it’s much harder to do so. The following lines are not meant to be a moral exhortation but more the sharing of challenges we all face as people working in communities and treading the line between theory and practice.
We live in a world saturated by quotations, sound bites and lessons on what the basic principles of ethical leadership are and we can all list the necessary qualities (creating trust and psychological safety, transparency, honesty along with care for the wellbeing and dignity of others), and many of these will be enshrined in mission statements. However, if the culture of the workplace is toxic, these words mean nothing. Talking about transparency but going behind people’s backs; preaching care but then gaslighting and dehumanising people; stating the importance of honesty while lying through one’s teeth; nodding the head at a talk about psychological safety but then creating a culture of fear; singing the praises of teamwork but then ganging up on individuals all build an environment that is cynical and disillusioned: the words mean nothing.
George Orwell, that master of dystopian social satire, illustrates such situations in his masterpieces Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four. In both novels, the “party” uses positive language and appropriates noble principles to essentially enact the exact opposite: “comrades” are actually exploited subalterns and the “Ministry of Truth” is actually a propaganda factory. It’s more corrosive and disturbing than mere hypocrisy, here we are talking about intentional subversion, creating a psychosis of cognitive conflict where things are their opposite and such a twisted state is sustained rhetorically and ideologically. Orwell called it “doublethink”.
Unfortunately this type of behaviour goes beyond fiction, it is something most of us will be familiar with in environments that are not what they say they are. What remains and has an impact of course, is not the façade, but the actions, not the charade of what is said but the actual impact of what is done.
Epictetus knew what he was talking about: legend has it that his master was so cruel that he broke his leg as a punishment and this caused the philosopher to limp for the rest of his life, an ongoing reminder of the lasting consequences of actions.
How do you get the best out of people? Something we can be pretty sure of after decades of research in leadership and psychology is that it is not by putting pressure on someone or by sending them the message that you don’t trust them that you will get anything beyond basic compliance. Without some space to breathe and some gauge of confidence instilled in their capacity, those being led will doubt themselves, retract into a fight or flight mode and ultimately fall into a state of anxiety and disrupted working memory. There will be no meaningful performance. This has been shown quite convincingly in the the Yerkes-Dodson Law, one of the oldest experiments in behavioural psychology: while performance clearly responds positively to a reasonable amount of stimulation, when that stimulation becomes excessive and takes the form of stress, performance declines and impairs a number of cognitive processes.
Interestingly, it is exactly the same with learning and teaching: students will struggle to explore the full potential of their creative critical capabilities if they feel threatened, if they do not trust their entourage and feel that their mentor does not believe in them. Engagement in learning will not flourish in a morally ambiguous or even hostile environment and students will not learn well when placed under too much stress. Constructs such as maths anxiety and test anxiety show clearly that students need to feel safe to thrive.
If we can show gratitude and recognise achievements, allow for mistakes and encourage a learning culture where we continually grow and not a reward/punish culture where mistakes are vilified; if we are consistent in messaging, never equivocating or twisting the truth and if we manage to create an environment of confidence-building wellbeing, then we will surely be walking the talk.
In these times where dubious models of leadership are proliferating worldwide, based on archaic and misled playbooks of authoritarianism, manipulation and fear-mongering, let’s teach and lead ethically, which means behaving ethically and not just highlighting ethics as abstract principles. After all, the word ethics comes from the Greek ēthikḗ, which means “character”, in other words, the way we are.
To be clear, all of this is easier said than done (it always is!). In my leadership, I strive to lead by action and to actively create psychological safety at all times, but this is not something that happens in a straightforward manner as our intentions might be good when the actual results of decisions are not always what we wanted: it’s a lifelong journey to get to the model Epictetus described in the Enchiridion (written by his student Arrian). At the International School of Geneva, my colleagues and I engage in a growth goal model where 1:1 conversations nurture growth while we still challenge each other over expectations, it’s a work in progress. As this is aspirational, the reality on the ground is not always aligned with the normative vision of where we want to get to, an even stronger reasons to align words with actions and to move together to that higher ground, to keep moving in the right direction.
In the final analysis, it is in the way that we treat other people that the real values come out. Wherever you are and whatever you do, hold on to that precept and continue to lead by example.
Photograph of the bust of Epictetus by Roberto Emergo