Written by Sonny Hastie

Ambition is necessary but not sufficient for ethical leadership. It is the purposeful drive that we need to build momentum and make important change. But, without direction, our ambition is morally neutral and not necessarily aligned with the principles of ethical leadership.

The ultimate value of our ambition is a product of how, why, and with whom it is directed. Macbeth's infamous "vaulting ambition," self-serving and unscrupulous, was his fatal hamartia. In contrast, the ambition of Nelson Mandela, directed towards justice and peace, holds undoubtedly positive moral value. It is only by examining the direction of ambition that we discover how aspiring ethical leaders should understand the concept.

A good place to begin is with our 'why': the motivation beneath our ambition. For ambition to be aligned with the values of ethical leadership, our why should be other-oriented. It should be steered by a commitment to support and benefit those around us.

Grounding ambition in the interests of others allows us to be interested in our own skills and potential for self-development whilst preventing our work from becoming self-interested or self-serving. When engaging in independent self-evaluation, it can be easy to misjudge the extent to which we possess certain traits or skills. However, when we self-evaluate with other-oriented ambition as a guiding principle, we are prompted to do so honestly and pragmatically as we consider 'how and where can I, given my current skillset, most effectively benefit others.'

I took this approach and evaluated my potential for positive impact when applying to Cambridge United Foundation for my Leadership in Action (LiA) placement. I saw congruity between my current skillset and the Foundation's missions and strategy, which motivated my application. This self-assessment proved hugely beneficial. During my placement, I was able to make myself useful to my team and to the community in a variety of ways - through writing articles, creating presentations and serving food at the seniors' lunch, among other responsibilities.

So, ethical leaders should understand ambition as being underpinned by a drive to benefit others. This benefits the leader as well as those they strive to support, as the leader is prompted to constantly self-evaluate and self-improve, without becoming self-interested.

Understanding the importance of cultivating other-oriented ambition is just the first step in successfully directing our energy. Due to many reasonable constraints, each leader cannot hope to effectively direct their ambition towards all others, or even towards all others that are in grave need of support. How, then, should ethical leaders specifically direct their other-oriented ambition?

There are likely a number of ways to answer this, but I believe that a strong argument can be made to direct our ambition towards the needs of individuals and communities that have been overlooked or forgotten. Prioritising overlooked needs has numerous positive outcomes.

In the short term, addressing overlooked need immediately alleviates some suffering, an undoubtedly positive result. Additionally, since such benefits are often uncommon for these groups, the weight of their impact will be felt in an augmented way, even if the relief itself is only an initial step to further progress.

Positive longer-term outcomes may also emerge from targeting the needs of overlooked individuals. For example, these individuals may begin to have more faith in social support systems and may be more likely to voice their needs or seek support in the future without fear of being ignored, dismissed, or sidelined. Moreover, actively engaging with forgotten groups helps interrupt vicious cycles of neglect and injustice (whereby the more an issue goes unaddressed, the worse it becomes, and the more unapproachable it gets) and leads to more sustainable 'treatments' for needs rather than 'quick fixes' that only temporarily relieve unmet needs.

During my LiA, one of my colleagues at the Foundation taught me that Cambridge is one of the UK's most unequal cities, with an 11.6-year life expectancy gap existing between those living in most deprived and the most affluent areas. As a part of my placement, I had the opportunity to work with KS1/KS2 children from the Abbey Ward (which falls in the top 20% of the UK's most deprived areas) at the HAF summer programme. I gained valuable first-hand experience of how need can be obscured by misconceptions born out of a city's reputation for privilege and can progressively deteriorate further over time as a result of its being hidden. This has only strengthened my belief that overlooked and forgotten groups should be at the centre of how we direct our ambition.

Yet even with this clarity on ‘why’ and ‘how,’ putting these ideas into practice is not always straightforward. What challenges may ethical leaders face, and how can we tackle them?

Working to address deeply rooted issues and attend to the needs of others can test our resolve. Our willpower may wane when circumstances conspire against us or our projects appear overwhelming. This is why our ambition should be driven by other-oriented motives, not merely willpower. If our striving is underpinned by a principle of other-oriented benefit distribution, we have an ever-present reason to persist, improve, and work to support others.

Although our ultimate purpose must remain unwavering, our methods should be adaptable. Endurance requires flexibility. Often, a challenge that appears insurmountable can be navigated by altering one's approach, perspective, or angle of attack, whilst maintaining a strictly other-oriented core ambition. For example, when England were knocked out of the World Cup, the football-themed quiz event I had planned for that week was jeopardised. Rather than persisting with the original plan, my team and I pivoted to a new quiz night event. We allowed neither the original plan nor the challenge we faced to obscure the end goal (to raise awareness and money for the Foundation and, ultimately, use these profits to benefit the local community). With over a week to go, we had recorded more sign-ups for the new event than we had just before the original. The quiz was ultimately a success, raising over £200 and testing a potentially repeatable event format for the Foundation. Adaptable action alongside a rigid purpose allowed my team and I to pursue our ambition successfully.

Sometimes, though, lack of information or experience is what holds us back. Even if we are steadfast in our ambition and adaptable in our methods, we simply may not know the best course of action. This is why ethical leaders cannot work in isolation. Enduring hardship and solving problems requires one to recognise one's own limitations and to draw on the experiences and skills of others. The ability to work in collaboration with others is crucial for being an effective changemaker.

As a part of this, ethical leaders must listen to those who they work to support. Other-oriented ambition is useless if we do not understand the needs of others expressed in their own words. This often requires humility. During my placement, I thought I had built a sturdy proposal for a community 'punt and walk' event. However, after speaking directly with community members about their thoughts on the event at the quarterly Foundation 'Champions Group' meeting, I found holes in my plan. I went on to improve the proposal, with the prospective participants' feedback strongly in mind. Ethical leaders are distinctive not because they possess ambition, but because they direct their ambition in the right way.

Ultimately, ethical leaders should understand ambition as the other-oriented striving to benefit those whose needs are being overlooked. Leaders can tackle difficulties that arise when putting their ambition into practice – through being grounded in their other-oriented 'why,' through adaptability of action, and through persistent collaboration with others.

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