<em>This is a popular post at our <a href="http://achievedstrategies.com/blog/">Achieved Strategies </a>blog. We wanted to share it with all Lead Change readers.  We love to hear your reaction in the comments below.</em>

Our doctors take they <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath">Hippocratic Oath</a> swearing to ethically treat their patients, and to follow an ideal conduct as a physician.  In a conversation with a client, she casually suggested that leaders should take a Leadership Oath.  Ethics and ideal conduct are not limited to physicians and are fitting for leaders.  So what follows is a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath.  As suggested by my client, what follows is my version of the Leadership Oath.

I present it to you for conversation.

<em>I swear to fulfill to the best of my ability and judgment this covenant:</em>

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<em>I will respect the hard-won leadership gains of those managers in whose step I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as well as mine to those who follow after me.</em>

<em>I will apply, for the benefit of my employees, community, and society, all measures that are required, avoiding those twin traps of control and absence of leadership.</em>

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<em>I will remember that there is art to leadership as well as science, and that compassion, courage, and understanding employees’ ideas may outweigh the logic of balance sheets or strategic growth.</em>

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<em>I will not be ashamed to say “ I don’t know,” nor will I fail to call upon experts when their skills are needed for employee and organizational success. </em>

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<em>I recognize that my experiences create biases that limit my perspective; therefore, I will cultivate a culture of inquiry amongst my peers to invite others to help me see <img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4732" src="http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/cooperation_Small-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" />possibilities beyond my viewpoint.</em>

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<em>I will respect the needs of my employees to grow as human beings, and do what I can to support their development in ways that help them better contribute to the organization and society.</em>

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<em>I will respect the privacy of my employees.  I will do what I can to support employees’ needs for work and life integration.</em>

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<em>I will respect the need to support the growth and transformation of the organization.  Most especially must I tread with care in matters of ethics and integrity.  If it is given to me to “save the life” of an organization, I must call upon the two and act accordingly with all stakeholders.  It may also be within my power to terminate employees; this awesome responsibility must be faced with humanity, humbleness and awareness of my own frailty.  Above all, I must not put myself before others.</em>

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<em>I will prevent “organizational disease” whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to “cures.”  I will remember that I remain a member of the community and of society, with special obligations to my fellow human beings, those who report to me as well as those who work and live nearby.</em>

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<em>If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter.  May I always act so as to preserve the finest actions and ways of being of leadership, and may I long experience the joy of being a leader.</em>