Ethical business leadership isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’- ethical leadership actually benefits the bottom line, as ethical leaders tend to run more profitable companies. Why? One major reason is that ethical leaders show a strong personal commitment to creating a positive company culture, writes Jeremy Kinstlinger, Director and Co-Founder of Global Prime

There’s a positive correlation between companies with an affirming culture, and an individual employee’s job performance and productivity. Ethical leaders are able to inspire their employees by taking a strong stance on important issues and instilling in their team a sense of purpose and passion for their work.

At Global Prime, we take our commitment to ethical business leadership extremely seriously, and pride ourselves on our core values of extreme transparency, integrity, fairness, and accountability.  Everything we do stems from these core values, including the way we interact with our clients, team members and stakeholders.

After 10 years of leading our company from a fintech start-up to an international trading platform with clients from over 120 countries around the world.

Here are the top 5 ethical qualities I think all business leaders need

Transparency leads to ethical leadership

Transparency is the number one key to successful business leadership. If you have nothing to hide and are proud of how you conduct your work, then use that to share the details with your clients and industry through innovative approaches. For example, at Global Prime we are the first online broker to introduce Automated Trading Receipts so that our clients can see all trade executions and verify that we do not trade against them or profit from their losses. It is a little known fact that brokers commonly profit from client losses, and that this is allowed under current regulation. However, although it is legal, we believe you can’t have your client’s best interests at heart in this approach and have taken a strong public stance against it by introducing industry-first transparency measures.

Creating a level playing field

Having a human touch enables you to get on the team’s level and create an environment where everyone feels equally valued and has the same opportunities for success. When everyone feels united in striving towards a common goal for the business, rather than competing, then the team can function more efficiently and the workflow is more productive.

Self-awareness enhances leadership

It is essential to have a good understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Self-awareness helps leaders make ethical decisions, and understanding your strengths in both industry skills and knowledge, as well as personal characteristics, allows you to better perform your responsibilities as a leader within your organisation.

Leaders thrive on open communication

Having open lines of communication is essential to keep tabs on workflow and the general vibe of your team. In the early days, most start-ups only have a very small team in the beginning comprised of a handful of dedicated and hardworking people. The pace moves very fast, with everyone often working on overdrive. This is where active and efficient communication in the team becomes so important to ensure that the workflow stays organised and there’s no overlap.

Fairness, integrity, and honesty

A business leader needs these qualities otherwise they won’t get it back in return. If you conduct your business with transparency and integrity at all times, then these qualities will be returned to you tenfold in appreciation from your clients, business partners, employees and stakeholders. Building an ethos and reputation around these core values is a solid base from which any business can grow.

In the ever-changing and fast-paced environment of the 21^st century, ethical business leadership is essential now more than ever. While some people might think there is a choice to be made between a profitable bottom line and behaving ethically, ethics and good leadership actually go hand-in-hand. Ethical people and leaders are necessary drivers of a businesses’ long-term success.