Moral Intelligence Book notes
Discussion questions Moral Intelligence
Authors: Doug Lennick and Fred Kiel Ph.D
Discussion Questions compiled by Jane L. Sigford, Ed.D
Chapter One: Good Business
1. Cognitive intelligence is needed for competent leadership. However, how to
emotional intelligence and moral intelligence make a “good” organization into
a “great” one?
2. What is the difference between emotional intelligence and moral
intelligence? How are they demonstrated in an organization?
3. How does this discussion build on the discussion from Resonant Leadership
by Boyatzis and McKee?
Chapter Two: Born to be Moral
1. What does it mean to you and your team that “great leaders share a common
trait—humility” P. 31
2. “Choosing among competing desires is the essence of morality. Making
decisions between our sometimes competing drives requires us to make moral
choices.” P. 32 What are some of the difficult competing desires that we
face daily that push us to make moral choices almost on a daily basis? How
do we decide what is the right thing to do?
3. What are the universal principles that cross cultures, religions, ethnicities?
How are they entry points in dealing with differing cultures that we find in
our schools?
Chapter Three: Your Moral Compass
1. What does it mean to “live in alignment” as a leader in a school?
2. On p. 41 there is an exercise to complete as an individual exercise that could
lead to a great reflection and sharing among your leadership team. There are
other subsequent worksheets that build on the them of living in alignment
that would be valuable to complete personally and sharing as a team.
3. Actions: Speak louder than words. If we have moral compass and admirable
goals but we don’t make them real, they are useless. If we fail to act in
concert with values and goals it is worse than worthless. It does us harm
and makes us trustworthy. We trust people who do what they say they will
do. P. 61. Thoughts and emotions drive our actions so we must be cognitive
of them as well. How do you as a school leader align your thoughts, emotions,
values, beliefs and actions? How does your team know that you are doing
this and demonstrating what it means to be a moral leader?
Chapter 4: Staying True to yourself
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Moral Intelligence Book notes
1. Knowing who you want to be, knowing how and actually doing means that your
behaviors are in alignment with your moral compass. Three qualities –moral
intelligence, moral competence, and emotional competence—help keep you in
alignment. When you are in leadership role and these three qualities are in
alignment you feel as though you are “in the zone” when was the last time
you felt that you were “in the zone”? What were you doing? What were the
actions you were taking? How can you repeat that feeling?
2. Most successful leaders spend the majority of their time in misalignment
which are caused by moral viruses—unfounded negative beliefs that are in
conflict with universal principles. The viruses are listed on p. 70. How do
you deal with the moral viruses in your thinking?
3. Destructive emotions keep us from acting consistently with goals. We can’t
eliminate them but there are techniques to disable them. You cannot have
incompatible states in action at the same time. For example, if you practice
positive meditation, you can counteract the destructive emotions. What do
you practice to disable destructive emotions? Are you aware of your
destructive emotions or do they sometimes just take over your thinking?
Part Two: Developing Moral Skills
Each of the 4 principles—integrity, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness hae
related moral competencies
Chapter 5: Integrity
1. What is your definition of integrity? How does that coincide with what
Lennick and Kiel describe as the competencies of integrity?
2. Have you ever found yourself telling someone something for “their own
good.”? How is that a passive-aggressive way of being honest?
3. How does being a model of truth telling create an effective work place?
4. Have you ever faced a situation where “taking a stand meant accepting the
risks because the moral consequences of looking the other way were
unacceptable? What was the situation and how did you handle it? What was
the outcome? What would have happened, do you think, if you had looked
the other way?
Chapter 6: Responsibility
1. How is the responsibility of a middle manager different from that of a
worker or a boss? In education, how might principals feel caught between
the superintendent and the responsibility to the teachers?
2. What does personal responsibility mean to you? How does it govern your
thoughts? Actions? How do you demonstrate personal responsibility to your
staff on a daily basis?
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Moral Intelligence Book notes
3. How difficult is it for you to admit mistakes? Do you do this privately or are
you open about it when necessary?
4. How does covering up mistakes make matters worse? Is there an example
when you have experienced that? What was the situation?
5. What is your level of responsibility and how do you demonstrate it to help
your employees achieve their personal goals?
Chapter 7: Compassion and Forgiveness
1.
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