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For more information on Leader Ethics Wisconsin please visit their website at leaderethicswi.org
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What is leader ethics Wisconsin. Thanks for the opportunity to chat about this Bob leader ethics Wisconsin is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization is committed to promoting ethical leadership among elected officials. We believe that there are four principles that define ethical leaders truthful the transparent with public information. Their unifier's rather
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than dividers in the work to the best of their ability to represent their entire constituency, and as such we don't believe ethical leadership is tied to any particular political party, or even to any particular legislative policy because an ethical leader can approach those things. Following those principles and have options and how they can demonstrate it so leader ethics Wisconsin is there to bring about increased awareness and the need for this in our elected leaders then tell me who is Lee Rasch well you know I I lived in the Chicago area for a number years and prior to coming to La Crosse I worked at a large community college in the suburbs. It was a good college in many ways, but it was not founded on what I would call ethical principles, they lacked integrity, and in some of their hiring practices and marketing practices, and it was really the catalyst for me coming up to La Crosse and in 1989 and I assume the role of president that Western technical College and what I realized is that many of the practices that I brought with me to Western practices that I learned in suburban Chicago and so I actually spent several years trying to unlearn things that I had been doing in the past and learn things in a new way that I felt was better reflecting what the college needed and what I needed to demonstrate and solve those are things that I worked on over the years in an effort to be more character-based and a servant leader and practice Lee. What's the difference between leadership and servant leadership and ethical leadership. I think the terms are somewhat interchangeable in my view, those four principles are critical for not just Anna in the political world really the kinds of things that ethical leaders servant leaders follow and practice in business, education, healthcare services and so those are the things were trying to promote as expectations for elected leaders think that this way, if you are buying service or or product from a local company do you expect that the company will operate the ethical leadership if you're school that where you can still has an administrative you expect that person to be an ethical leader. People don't always deliver to the level that you hope. But there's an effort and an expectation that they would. So the question we would ask, why don't we carry those same expectations in the political arena and those of the things were trying to talk about in the direct Scott commit example of one of the member eventually well. Each chapter holds a member of an quarterly. I think one good example would be right brewed a vice president at their own power Cooperative, who was also a former leader, president of the state Senate in Wisconsin. His topic was countering political tribalism and that's an important topic today because the more we become partners in our beliefs than the farther we are away from being able to unify our efforts and to represent our entire constituency, so is a really good presentation. There was a lot of good interaction and we was good to hear from someone who's who's been there. What your goal for leader ethics was constantly in all, the goal is more than anything else. It is getting citizen involvement in raising expectations that are ethical leaders are elected leaders can be ethical leaders and you know we we provide a a citizens guide for 2020 is something that we shared with our members because we want them to realize there are big things and small things they can do in the state of North Dakota, for example, the state is dominated by one political party, and the fact they are ranked very low nationally in terms of transparency, a group of citizens they call themselves the bad ass grandmas. They took upon themselves to start a process to pass a new constitutional amendment that would improve transparency and implement an ethics commission. They were outspent more than 10 to 1 in that effort. This was in 2018 yet the legislation passed and it shows that when citizens take it upon themselves to the right thing they can produce really good results. So we want to share those stories with our members. How is a pandemic, telling of who is ethical and who is not ethical in the political arena will you know the pandemic is really calling out the importance of ethical leadership. We think of it this way when we need at a time when we are facing a threat, nonpartisan threat. It's a threat that's affecting potentially all of us so we need to look at those four principles we need ethical leaders at the federal and state and local level who were truthful giving us straight information. We need leaders who are transparent with public information and this is particularly difficult because in a pandemic like this. The conditions may be rapidly changing and so it's difficult to present something as accurate information. Knowing that it might evolve and change in a short period of time, but ethical leaders can be straightforward and how they present things and do the best they can. Transparency it's really important that we are unifying at this time, we should not be trying to divide our perspectives in the political and partisan views. We really need to represent the needs of the entire country or state in this effort. In a course that means representing our entire constituency in the process of not taking sides or singling out groups for favorable treatment or blaming. So at this time and that in a pandemic we really need ethical leaders to shine. So why would somebody want to become a member of leader ethics Wisconsin. But first of all, membership allows you to be a part of the effort and it's a simple process if you go to our website, leader, ethics WI.org on the homepage. There is a button since joining the press that button and you can follow the steps and you can become a member. It's a very affordable effort $25 a year. In fact, if you are age 23 or younger. It's $10 here. Your goal is to be as accessible for auspice not just those that have money, but by becoming a member, you get a monthly newsletter called the ethics report where we give examples of good ethical leadership in practice and examples that are not so good. We invite you to those quarterly chapter events. We also give every chapter an opportunity to hold a candidate development workshop and such. Try to develop the next generation of ethical leaders starting with local school boards, city Council. So those are things that happen if you become a member of leader ethics Wisconsin gives you a chance to be a part of that process. Why is $25 to join and we had a lot of discussion on this and I was a conscious decision by the board in your organization to make engagement and leader ethics. Wisconsin is available and is affordable for everyone. And we didn't want to have funds coming from private organizations or individuals that would raise questions about who's pulling the strings on this effort, we want this to be something that a citizen led and grassroots in every way. Do you think it's possible to change expectations with leader ethics Wisconsin were not naïve about this. We understand that the challenges are huge. But if we stay persistent with this. We think over time we can make that difference I think back to an example of when I was a freshman in college and I was sitting in psychology class and I had a portable ashtray in my left hand and I was chain-smoking cigarettes and I wasn't the only one there were others in the class to. In fact, the air was blue when you think of that image today. It just seems so foreign. But you know the change in that expectation didn't happen in one piece of legislation. It didn't happen in one year. It happened in lots of ways at the legislative level at the organizational level over many years. We think if we stay persistent with this and we continue to have the conversation, consistently in many different communities over time. Yes, we can bring about the change and we can see better ethical leadership in the political.
3 years ago
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