Ethical leadership
School Senior Leader Level 7 Apprenticeship
Welcome & Introductions
(PowerPoint will be shared & a Podcast will be available for each session)
AIM & OBJECTIVES
Aim
To strengthen your ability to exercise ethical judgement under strategic and regulatory pressure, ensuring that values, financial sustainability and governance responsibilities are critically aligned rather than treated as competing priorities.
Objectives
•Interpret ethics and values-based leadership principles in order to challenge strategic and financial proposals under conditions of ambiguity (K6, S7)
•Critically evaluate financial and operational strategies by identifying assumptions, trade-offs and sustainability implications (S7, S10, K8)
•Analyse the external regulatory and stakeholder environment when shaping and justifying board-level decisions (K13, S21)
•Justify strategic judgements in a way that demonstrates personal accountability aligned to clear organisational values (B2)
In the previous session there was… Cognitive strain
Realistic ambiguity
The need to justify decisions
Why this session matters…
From opinion to evidence-based reasoning
Ethical leadership with competing responsibilities
Deliberate tension
Ethical leadership under pressure
Ethical
fading (Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004)
Moral
muteness (Bird & Waters, 1989)
Bounded
ethicality (Chugh, Banaji & Bazerman, 2005)
Ethical fading (Tenbrunsel &
Messick, 2004)
When the moral dimension of a decision becomes ‘backgrounded’
E.g. financial/other pressures
Moral muteness
(Bird & Waters, 1989)
When leaders avoid explicitly naming the ethical
dimensions of
a decision Does the language ‘dilute’ the ethical case?
Bounded ethicality
(Chugh, Banaji & Bazerman, 2005)
Good people making compromised decisions
E.g. when under cognitive constraint
Breakout room 1
• Introductions, as appropriate
• Discuss the following prompts and prepare to give feedback
Breakout room 1: Interrogating ethical tension
In your group, your task is to:
• Identify the core ethical tension
• Surface embedded assumptions
• Notice where language reframes values
• Identify what might be missing
You are not being asked to solve the issue or recommend an option, yet
Breakout room progression
Case study QR code, website link and PDF
Breakout room 1: Interrogating ethical tension
In your group, your task is to:
• Identify the core ethical tension
• Surface embedded assumptions
• Notice where language reframes values
• Identify what might be missing
Suggested timings:
7 minutes: reading/reflecting
11 minutes: interrogate assumptions
7 minutes: identify gaps & uncertainties
You are not being asked to solve the issue or recommend an option, yet
Breakout room progression
From interrogation to accountability
You now have to decide
You will own the consequences
You must justify your position
Breakout room 2: Ethical judgement
Your task is to prepare a 5-minute presentation that:
• Is a maximum of 5 slides (or verbal equivalent).
• Each person in your team delivers one slide. (combine slides, if fewer than 5 in your team)
• Layout/format as you see fit (you must tell us who ‘we are’ i.e. your audience)
NB You are not defending ‘perfection’.
You are demonstrating ethical judgement under constraint.
Breakout room 2: Ethical judgement
As the MLT Board of Trustees, your task is to prepare a 5-minute presentation that includes: Your decision
Ethical justification Strategic rationale
Key risks and trade-offs
Communication approach and next steps
NB You are not defending ‘perfection’.
You are demonstrating ethical judgement under constraint.
Breakout room 2: Ethical judgement
As the MLT Board of Trustees, your task is to prepare a 5-minute presentation that includes: Your decision
Ethical justification
Strategic rationale
Key risks and trade-offs
Communication approach and next steps
Timings
How will you manage your team to be ready to present with the 25-minute limit?
NB You are not defending ‘perfection’. You are demonstrating ethical judgement under constraint.
What did you notice?
What became clearer?
What became harder?
Where did value complete?
Where did time pressure shape thinking?
Ethical leadership under pressure requires:
Clarity of values
Comfort with uncertainty Ownership of trade-offs
Visible accountability for the consequences Defensible judgement
Connecting this to your strategic business proposal…
•Your strategic business proposal must demonstrate judgement, not just analysis
•You must justify trade-offs under questioning
•Evidence must be integrated, not simply described
•You must defend your position under scrutiny
Reflection…
• Where do you default to relying solely on analysis and not being prepared to make a judgement call?
• Where you jump to conclusions without robust, evidence-informed interrogation? • What will you now do differently?
How?
AIM & OBJECTIVES
Aim
To strengthen your ability to exercise ethical judgement under strategic and regulatory pressure, ensuring that values, financial sustainability and governance responsibilities are critically aligned rather than treated as competing priorities.
Objectives
•Interpret ethics and values-based leadership principles in order to challenge strategic and financial proposals under conditions of ambiguity (K6, S7)
•Critically evaluate financial and operational strategies by identifying assumptions, trade-offs and sustainability implications (S7, S10, K8)
•Analyse the external regulatory and stakeholder environment when shaping and justifying board-level decisions (K13, S21)
•Justify strategic judgements in a way that demonstrates personal accountability aligned to clear organisational values (B2)
What lies ahead?
From ethical judgement to cultural alignment
From strategy to operational accountability
From decision-making to leadership impact
