Evolution or imitation?
Since man has memory of himself, his actions have been directed and motivated to his survival, even in animal life, we can see similar manifestations of prevalence between the same species, where the strongest guides and protects the herd and this, embrace and accept this natural condition.
With the passage of time until the present, man has defined his condition of "Leader" or "Follower", based on the experience that each specific situation requires; There are special junctures, where organized society hands over its ability to be guided to someone who meets the ideal conditions to undertake this important task whose objective is the search for achievement and the common good.
In short, this is how leadership is born and delivered.
In today's organizations, there is a constant search for leaders to whom the mission, vision and culture of the organization are transferred, so that they can manage it based on strategic objectives, which allow it to compete and prevail within an environment undermining opportunities, threats and responsibilities, for which it is required that the chosen person possesses a series of skills and knowledge that can unite the organization, its members, its stakeholders and society, in a solid and virtuous value chain.
Leadership hand in hand with ethics, seek, under these premises described, to guide people, especially young people, along this path, which is part of the personal success of each individual, which is not easy but at every step that occurs, a better understanding of what "wants to be" can be forged, now and in the future, with clear goals and objectives of what "must be done", to achieve the long-awaited self-realization… "always in search of happiness".
The verb "do"…
Leadership, in Peru, seen from the point of ethics, shows us a discontinuous facet and where education has a great impact on the true value of guiding others to seek and achieve their ideals.
The achievements of people, analyzed, taking into account their skills, show us a failed or truncated maturation of values and above all, in ethics, this being the key point that must be influenced from the beginning in education, either at the family and / or student level, so that in this way, the need to find the common good is reflected in the workplace and in the very lives of individuals, as part of a more human and social achievement.
Although it is true that the achievement involves a person or a group of them, the beneficiaries of it, will be those who approve or disapprove of it, the ethics of doing the greatest possible good shows us a path of excellence, which few, very Few seek to apply this because of the great responsibility that encompasses the simple precept of "making others better."
Wren, D. (1994). He stated that “the issue of ethics is about moral human conduct, good or bad, it has occupied the thought of philosophers since time immemorial. Ethics is the moral “duty” that sustains a civilized society ”(p.408).
When we speak of ethics, we find in its concept the study of “doing”, but it does not contemplate “omission” or “not doing”; Likewise, we find "good" or "evil" as the roads through which "doing" circulates; Obviously the object where all these elements are poured, they are visualized as part of the “behavior” of the people, but why is it indicated like this?… a part of human behavior is given by the influence of its habitat, another part by its own experience and / or need, which guides their action and another, by the degree of discernment that the individual applies to determine whether what he "does" or "does not do" is or could not have been the right thing to do.
In an analysis carried out in the faculty of a University of the department of Lambayeque in 2018, it was found that the majority of its students were looking for their own or individual achievements and that within their competences, ethics did not appear as a necessary Success Factor In order to achieve social “recognition”, it is more, when analyzing their intra and inter-personal skills, a great ignorance of themselves was found as well as the lack of a life plan that allows them to develop personal goals that guide their self-realization; This lack of conviction to determine how these students visualize themselves and place themselves in the future, is explained by the lack of stimuli that can be generated in their own comfort zones and at the same time,due to the rise of collateral stimuli irradiated to their learning zone from other comfort zones, which over time become “stereotypes” or “models” to be imitated.
These models are independent of people, who seek stimuli to "do" many times, 90% seek to "imitate", and here comes the problem… what is "imitated" does it have what it takes to be classified as a good mirror ?, the statistics answer us, 50% are very poor in ethics, morals, values and principles; 35% have a mix between motivation and need, but it is not based on ethics and values; the remaining 15%, if it can be classified as differentiating and positive elements to follow.
Of the 10% who "do not" seek to "imitate", the 99% develop a role model based on "individualism", it is common to notice a lack of "discipline", no ethics or precepts are observed, the development of social skills is not they have balance, and when the model matures, the self-realization achieved, still does not find the emotional parity required between their vision as a person and their mission as a social entity.
Only 1% of those who "do not seek to imitate", consolidate from the beginning the necessary elements to develop an "efficient model of self-realization".
But what is it that keeps people from ethics? The answer to this question has many elements of conviction, which in the course of a life are assimilated and cemented by some specific lack or the sum of several of these, which diminish and affect the realization of some necessary or desired objective of the individuals.
These elements of conviction are reflected and tried to be explained in the "recognition theory" developed by Axel Honnet (Frankfurt School), where it is conceptualized that an individual who is mistreated, humiliated and ignored, ceases to be or loses his probity, his rights, their personal and / or moral autonomy and therefore, becomes a person who, in order to cover those limitations that overwhelm them, suppresses part of their free will or discernment, focusing on "easy", without interest, if the action to be carried out or already carried out, can be classified as good or bad.
James MacGregor Burns, in his work Leadership (1978), one of his statements indicates: "the leadership crisis, today, is due to the mediocrity or irresponsibility of both men and women in power"… but in the analysis of this affirmation, we find that the crisis of leadership and personality of individuals, to "do", has its turning point in education… in a country like Peru, where public education is "basic, irregular and politicized" We found a great "critical factor" for a great majority of Peruvians, but that does not mean that private education has greater efficiency over Peruvian public education, it has its pros and cons, however it has greater benefits and scope in "Educate with ethics, values and principles" (68% believe that private education is better and 35% Peruvians of school age,they study in private schools. Management Newspaper, (02/07/2017). Public or private education, what do Peruvians prefer?).
A self-realization without ethics and values is "questionable" and of little consequence in favor of a common and social good; The achievements that may be generated from this perspective would be lacking in support and transparency, although part of this achievement may be made available and / or in favor of third parties, which could be interpreted as an attempt to "wash away unethical self-realization."
It is important to make clear the premise of "washing a self-realization without ethics", since at present, the "corruption" derived from a lack of principles, values and ethics, leads to the analysis of individuals, a series of achievements from this and that they do not have any link with success or the fruit of a "formal self-realization", therefore the actions that people can generate, to hide the true origin of this achievement, can be classified as part of the "money laundering" that It is carried out in fraudulent procedures.
When we speak of a “formal self-realization”, we are focusing and defining a series of factors, which in people, develop in harmony, at different times of maturity and linked to education, family and long-term personal planning, which allows to responsibly consolidate a formal self-realization
The factors of a "formal self-realization" are also known as the main elements that make up "a personal management model", where a series of "strategies", "action plans, necessary resources and limitations", "objectives, factors" are integrated. of success and critical factors ”, and finally“ the prospect of the vision, mission and values towards the way in which risk and personal change are managed ”.
The ethics of virtue, by Plato and Aristotle, where Plato, (370 BC), in his philosophical work "The Symposium" or also known as "The Banquet", names four elements for ethics based on virtue and love: 1) Prudence; 2) Value; 3) Temperance; 4) Justice.
If we associate these elements to the current issue, but analyzing them separately, we find the main factors to issue or evaluate "value judgments", which are related to the "doing" of human behavior, however it does not take into account the factors exogenous that sensitize the individual to act or perform a task in relation to decision-making, where the "doing" has been deliberate before its realization.
Alfred Sonnenfeld (2010), in his book "ETHICAL LEADERSHIP: The wisdom of deciding well", discusses wisdom, that is, the "decision" over "doing", analyzes the ethics of people, by the type decision making and happiness that is generated.
But, why "make another better"? Why the ethics of excellence? At what stage in the evolution of ethics are we? Why is a holistic ethic required to build our happiness?…
These prerogatives, difficult to put in context, show us a diffuse view of what is required as a society, the "reverse leadership", promoted by an environment lacking optimism and vision of a common future, place us at the crossroads of living "accepting the lesser evil ”or also known as the“ reward ethics ”, where ethics and leadership coexist in divorce but clinging to questionable Success Factors, as already explained.
Success Factors, Critical Factors or Limits of Ethics to Success?
One of the continuous questions we ask ourselves is about the limitations of ethics and how to identify them, from this point, it could be defined as the extremes of this, on the one hand are the Success Factors, also known as support elements or resource providers and on the other hand, the Critical Success Factors or excluding elements… these factors are very changeable among themselves, generating a series of conditions that will determine the degree of influence that ethics will have on people and the fulfillment of its objectives.
The Success Factors (FE) are, like the Critical Success Factors (CRF), pre-existing and / or programmed natural conditions that are given or required, so that an objective can be achieved and / or carried out within a period of time. Dear… the difference between one and the other is that, the FE of having them on hand or having the ease of access or having their disposition, are not critical… if this condition is lost (their disposition), they become FCE or scarce factors, which will generate, that the objective is not fulfilled or that the foreseen time is greater than the initially estimated.
Likewise, there are FCEs that do not depend on one, but on the environment and this makes them become "entry barriers" in the design of an objective, these FCE can be "physical", "political" and "from the environment"… Unlike the above, the FCE that depend on one are those that are defined in the «social skills of people» (intrapersonal and interpersonal).
The physical FCE are: the resources (economic, material and intellectual); the political FCE, are: the norms, the ethics, the morals, the principles, the values…; The CSFs of the environment are: society, organizations, interest groups.
An FE, which you have today, tomorrow can become an FCE and vice versa, for example: “a student depends on the work of their parents to study at the USS, if the parents work in a stable manner, the student has a physical FE at their own expense. Please… but if parents lose this ability to work they can no longer assure this FE to their child, therefore this dependency becomes an FCE, which will displace the time that the student meets his / her goal set for the study… other options: that the student works to solve his studies or that he waits until his parents can again give him the resource he needs to study, once again turning the FCE into an FE ”.
But what happens, when an FCE affects the individual in his self-realization, generating a "recognition" adverse to the sought?, Depending on the individual and the "need" of this that stimulates him, by the distance or proximity of the "achievement", is that it is going to develop planned actions or not, in its self-realization plan, and if the required FE is scarce, it is where the “what to do” to apply, in its conception, may contain questionable elements or contrary to ethical principles that requires a "formal achievement."
The breeding ground of the FE and FCE are linked to the need of people to be recognized and their search for happiness, which is success, therefore, in a context where education is poor in values, ethics are makes an FCE easy to evade.
"Making" the other better.
Man needs to set goals in life, but working more or having a higher income are not synonymous with goals, if "what is done" ignores what and why we apply our effort and how it can improve the well-being of women. persons.
Ethics is not only concerned with principles and purposes, it is very interested in the results obtained, even if these are sometimes different from what is desired.
Good or "doing good" is not an undefined objective whose materialization is unlikely, on the contrary, it is something that will always be active in the work of individuals, transforming it and endowing it with real and necessary virtues so that with them, forge a precise and common prosperity. Virtue allows the "who does", "to do better to those who are under our influence."
Finally, a leader must always keep in mind that, “ Whoever feels the call to lead must have sufficient perspective to know, at all times, that, over their own or others' failures, they can achieve that greatness of mind without the which there is no possible leadership ”(Sonnenfeld, 2010).
