The Leader's Responsibility

• You can distinguish moral leaders from immoral ones by thinking about them through the metaphor of light and shadow, writes Craig E. Johnson in "Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow." A poor leader, particularly the leader of a business, will "cast shadows" when he abuses power, hoard privileges and fail to assume responsibilities. Think about it this way; if all aspects of business have light shone upon them, it is very difficult for a businessperson to lie about how much money the company has or how many employees work there.
  
  

Branding and Shadows

• Michael Difrisco uses the metaphor of the shadow in a slightly different way. Branding is the process by which you shape the customer's perception of a company or product. He believes that your core market represents the Sun -- the light source -- and your business is a big tree. If you are clear as to what your products are and what your company is like, your company's shadow will be nice and sharp. If your business is not "solid," the shadow will be fuzzy and undefined. A business uses its public image to sell product; the company run on unethical principles will cast a blurry shadow indeed.
  
  

The Sunlight of Business

• Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis said in a 1913 "Harper's Weekly" that "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." His point was that casting light upon an organization or a business will create publicity. The ethical businessperson doesn't mind facing this scrutiny, as the public will see only the good she does.
  
  

Making Use of Shadow Casting

• Combined, these uses of the metaphor of the shadow provide you with advice as to how to run your business in an ethical manner. While you certainly don't want to expose all of your private information to the sunlight, you should think about the perception of (and shadow cast) by what you do release. You can also consider ways to shape what people think about the information they uncover about your business. For instance, when you make a mistake -- they're inevitable, after all ), you can be proactive and compose an honest press release as to what happened. In this way, you're casting a nice, sharp shadow that lets your customer know what kind of service they can expect from you.