Moral Intelligence: Enhancing Business Performance and Leadership Success

by Doug Lennick and Fred Kiel

Book Overview

Useful for new entrants to the business world as well as experienced managers, this book is also suitable for students regardless of their career choice. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131490508
• ISBN13: 9780131490505
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Critical Rung on the Ladder to Success

Corporate morality plays a critical role in corporate success. One need only to listen to tales regaled by consumers who hesitate or refuse to purchase products from companies that engage in moral dysfunction to know it is true. Add to that, the growing list of investors and consumers who limit their purchases to companies that match the buyer's personal standards. Without a clear moral beacon, an organization risks devastating financial failure. The authors argue that without moral intelligence, long-term business success is not sustainable. For years we have recognized the difference between cognitive and emotional intelligence. Moral Intelligence, the authors argue is another distinct division. They define it as the ability to determine how universal human principles - like the "golden rule" - should be applied to our personal values, goals and actions. The book focuses on four principles that are vital for sustained personal and organizational success: 1. Integrity 2. Responsibility 3. Compassion 4. Forgiveness The authors admit that emotional and moral intelligence comes into play when more decisions are at stake. Yet it is obvious that there is a boundary. Without a moral anchor, leaders can be charismatic and influential, but in a profound destructive manner. Doug Lennick and Fred Kiel draw on extensive original research to demonstrate the best performing companies have leaders with a strong moral compass. Their ability to never waiver pays even in a world that often rewards bad behavior in the short run.

It's not just good morals, it's good business

The author makes a point that not only do we need to be taught morals and ethics, we need to know how to implement them in business. There are examples in this book of people gone wrong, terribly wrong, for very little reason other than the environment they were working in gave all the wrong signals--and that any moral training they'd had was weak enough to be lost in the crowd of "everyone's doing it, so it's ok." So, is it really ok to cheat stealing supplies, award bids to cronies and work against the firm's benefit for your personal gain because someone else is doing it? What's your answer? Without a moral compass (the instruction set on what and what not to do and why) and without moral direction (the how and when and why of what to do and what not to do) some pretty sad things happen. This is the crux of "Moral Intelligence" --businesses have to model the behavior as well as to instruct their members in ethics. And people better have a good grounding long before they enter the business world--after all, our values are pretty much set at age 10. The proposition in "Moral Intelligence" is that long-term business goals will benefit from doing the right thing, and that the needs of the moment and the shortcuts in doing things in a less than moral way are going to end up in a tragedy. I'd say, anything you read on the headlines today indicates that moral shortcutting pragmatism loses to the high road, eventually. Your sins catch up with you. Why not run your business, large or small, based on good values and ethics? You'll be a pillar of the community, you'll probably avoid being prosecuted, and you'll surely sleep better at night. An absolute MUST-READ for anyone in the business world and imperative if you are in a leadership role. Recommended.

A rallying cry to follow real leaders and become one yourself

Not every business leader lacks a moral compass that guides their lives despite what the news services would have us think. In fact, the authors of this book suggest that everyone has an innate moral compass and the moral intelligence to know what is right and wrong. What the leaders lack when they engage in questionable or blatantly illegal actions is the moral capacity to follow that compass. The second part of the book was the most interesting to me. In it the authors examine how to develop the skills to apply moral intelligence in the real world. They examine several areas of ethics including integrity, responsibility, compassion, forgiveness, and emotions. The final part of the book deals with moral leadership and how it can be used to create a morally intelligent company. The bottom line is that those who can apply moral intelligence keep their moral compass, their goals, and their behavior in alignment in everything they do. By realizing that success and moral action are not mutually exclusive they have become some of the most successful people in the world. The authors even include a moral competency inventory in the appendixes which can be used to help determine where you and your company stand currently. Moral Intelligence is highly recommended to all business leaders whether a foreman over just a few people or a CEO leading thousands.

Learning how to do the right thing...

I don't think morality in business is a new phenomenon, but it's gotten much more focus in the post-Enron business environment. I had a chance to read and review the book Moral Intelligence by Doug Lennick and Fred Kiel, Ph. D. This is an excellent book for more than just people in business... Chapter List: Part 1 - Moral Intelligence: Good Business; Born to Be Moral; Your Moral Compass; Staying True to Your Moral Compass Part 2 - Developing Moral Skills: Integrity; Responsibility; Compassion and Forgiveness; Emotions Part 3 - Moral Leadership: The Moral Leader; Leading Large Organizations; Moral Intelligence for the Entrepreneur; Becoming a Global Moral Leader; Strengthening Your Moral Skills; Moral Competency Inventory (MCI); Scoring the MCI; Interpreting Your MCI Scores; Index The main points that were driven home to me in this book are the concepts of moral intelligence and moral competence. Moral intelligence is the ability to know the "right thing to do", whereas moral competence is the ability to actually "do the right thing" when the time comes and the situation demands it. Unless there's some sort of physical or emotional damage to a person, everyone has a moral compass. In the business world, none of the people being convicted of criminal activity can say that the activities that they did were right. The intelligence of what is right and wrong was there (if ever so faint). It's the ability to act on that intelligence consistently that was lacking, and it's the reason many of them know where they'll be spending the next 5 to 10 years. The authors set forth the concepts in a clear fashion, and there are exercises throughout the first part of the book that will help you figure out exactly what your moral values are. Once you understand what you value, it's much easier to determine what the right thing to do might be in ambiguous or emotionally charged situations. While the book is generally written for business leaders, parts 1 and 2 apply to anyone. The daily situations where you need to act in a morally consistent fashion are present regardless of what part of the business you occupy. Part 3 gets more into specific applications that apply to business leaders, and it's there that today's business leader will learn how best to apply the concepts learned earlier. Excellent material that if considered and applied will change the way you run your business and your life. You'll definitely come away a happier and more fulfilled individual as you live a life that's in alignment with your values.

An IQ Test For The Soul

Not many of us start our business careers deciding what principles and values we should follow. If we do it is usually something involving money and advancement. The authors state that in their joint careers they have worked with hundreds of leaders and they found that the most successful of them all seemed to have something special. They decided that there was something more basic then emotional intelligence skills that seemed to be at the heart of long lasting business success. They call this trait moral intelligence. The authors describe moral intelligence as the mental capacity to determine how universal human principles should be applied to our values, goals and actions. The ability to differentiate between right and wrong. So they then decided to determine if this trait can be taught, which leads us to this book. They have written a book that is not so much a how to guide but almost a self examination of the readers moral compass and it gives the reader a challenge to do better. Overall the book is interesting and a bit inspiring. When reading a book about how you can make better decisions that are grounded in basic moral principals, you can not help but feel inspired to do better. The book is almost like a roadmap for readers to find their own moral compass. They make a good case that doing the right thing is not only the right way to lead your life, but that it is the best way to conduct business. I enjoyed the book and I think if you are interested in becoming a better person, you will also.