Leadership May 20, 2020
Podcast: Now’s the Time to Hone Your Moral Decision-Making Skills
Dilemmas are rarely black-and-white. On this episode of The Insightful Leader, we hear what fictional characters can teach us about today’s real-world quandaries.
The COVID-19 crisis has forced many leaders to make tough choices. Which employees should you let go if you need to make cuts? Is it immoral to have people come in to work if you can’t give them all masks? Should you sacrifice time with your family in order to focus on keeping your organization afloat?
When facing dilemmas like these, Brooke Vuckovic thinks that it can be helpful to turn to fiction. “You basically have the world at your fingertips the moment you are willing to engage with fiction and to learn how to extract lessons from it for you as a leader,” says Vuckovic, a clinical professor of leadership at Kellogg, who teaches courses on moral complexity.
On this episode, Vuckovic shares three works of literature that challenge leaders to approach moral questions more thoughtfully.
Note: The Insightful Leader is produced for the ear, and not meant to be read as a transcript. We encourage you to listen to the audio version above. However, a transcript of this episode is available here.