Ethical Leadership

With his book Liderazgo ético, Alfred Sonnenfeld received the Know Square Award in 2020. The candidates for the Best Business Book Awards are proposed by subscribers, publishers, and the Know Square Advisory Board, and are evaluated by the Awards Jury, a group of 25 Spanish professionals and executives who hold positions of responsibility in companies across all segments of economic activity.

In this book, the author rigorously describes what is characteristic of a leader with excellence, of a true aristós. He reminds us that throughout history, there have always been times of decline in which, to emerge from those deplorable situations, leaders with greatness of spirit were needed—people convinced that the work of renewal comes from within the human being. Today, we are also witnessing several signs of decline due to the lack of such greatness of spirit in executives who assume great responsibilities. Therefore, there is a need for leaders with generosity and nobility of spirit, who avoid flattery and twisted postures. Leaders who do not allow themselves to be swept away by widespread confusion and, above all, who do not succumb to the temptations of having more and more every day.

This is why, as the German Professor Alfred Sonnenfeld reminds us, the greatness of Socrates continues to amaze us. What is the measure of this hero? What makes him excellent? It is the coherence between his life and his way of acting. There is no gap between his being and his desire to be. He realizes what he values, what is worthy of being lived in an exemplary way. Socrates is a person of great inner refinement, who perceives and deeply lives the truth of the human being.

The refinement of spirit enjoyed by the virtuous implies an ability to make life pleasant for others, without which there would never be true friendship—so important for a good leader.

*Alfred Sonnenfeld holds doctorates in Medicine and Theology. He has been an expert member of the Ethics Commission of the Charité University Hospital in Berlin and a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Humboldt University in Berlin. In Germany, he has frequently participated in debates on radio and television and has given numerous lectures. He is currently a professor of Anthropology and Ethics at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR). His notable works include Liderazgo ético, Premio Know Square de 2020 (Aula Magna McGraw-Hill); Serenidad. La sabiduría de gobernarse, 4th ed. (translated into English in 2020); Educar para madurar. Consejos neurobiológicos y espirituales para que tú y tus hijos seáis felices, 11th ed., 2019; Armonía. La sorprendente comunicación en la pareja, 2020 (translated into Brazilian Portuguese in 2022); and El arte de la felicidad. Mente, cerebro y genes. Herramientas para su buen uso, 2023.

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El Rincón de Lectura de RLCS was born as part of a knowledge transfer activity by the CONCILIUM group (931.791) at the Complutense University of Madrid, "Validation of communication models, neurocommunication, business, social networks, and gender."