Moral Intelligence Enhancing Business Performance and Leadership Success

Part Two: Developing Moral Skills

Universal principles show up everywhere. They turn up in speeches and sermons and scoldings; they are chiseled into monuments. We know they sound good, but what do they really require of us? Exactly what are we supposed to do to live in alignment with principles? Fortunately, we “know it when we see it,”—we recognize when someone is acting in concert with an important principle. A colleague follows up with us when she said she would. A team member owns up to a costly mistake. A boss gives us some well-deserved “constructive” feedback and then goes on to treat us as cordially and respectfully as before. But it's a challenge to bring those lofty principles down to the level of day-to-day life. It's our moral competence ...