AN EXAMPLE Leading Financial Literacy in Disenfranchised Communities: An Analysis of My Leadership and Ethical Stance  A mission statement is the hammer in every leader’s toolbox. It is the foundation that leaders use to communicate their aspirations to their followers. Thus, it is imperative that emerging financial professionals acquire and commit to a mission statement as early as possible. My professional and personal mission statement is to provide financial literacy in low-income areas and to teach others how to become financially independent. Financial planning is an enabling resource that assists disenfranchised communities build retirement funds, avoid debt, and acquire assets. To ensure the success of my mission, it is necessary to contemplate how my background, values, ethical stance, and role as a leader influence my mission statement.  Gifts, Passions, and Circumstances  My unique gifts strategically position me to carry out my mission statement. I have a passion for writing and a natural aptitude for fleshing out ideas and putting them on paper. I was homeschooled most of my life and I spent a lot of time alone growing up. This solitary lifestyle led me to occupy my spare time with reading science fiction and graphic novels. When I was 13 years old I attended a speech by novelist Steven King, who inspired me to write my own fiction and develop my passion for writing. Outside of serving as a creative outlet, writing is an important skill that will contribute to the success of my mission statement. Financial information can often be confusing and intimidating for individuals who do not have the proper training to understand it. Having exceptional writing skills can help breakdown information into manageable parts and disseminate it in a user-friendly manner. For example, if someone were interested in investing in stocks and bonds, I could write them a short, concise, and easy to read manual that will help them get started. My writing skills are an integral part of delivering my service to consumers who are in need of my assistance.  My professional goals also help build my mission statement. I am majoring in accounting and after finishing my degree I plan to work in a public accounting firm. Public accounting entails much more than crunching numbers and balancing expense reports. An accountant is often one of the most  articulate and trusted personnel in a corporation. Much like language translators, accountants translate financial information for businesses, stockholders, or potential investors who serve as the backbone of the American economy. The valuable experience gained through working as an accountant will help develop my understanding of managing and earning money. At its core, financial literacy is really the art of understanding how money works in the realm of personal financing (US Department of Treasury, 2013). Who better to advise individuals on financial matters than a formally trained accountant? Experienc ...

1. AN EXAMPLE
Leading Financial Literacy in Disenfranchised Communities: An
Analysis of My Leadership and Ethical Stance
A mission statement is the hammer in every leader’s toolbox. It
is the foundation that leaders use to communicate their
aspirations to their followers. Thus, it is imperative that
emerging financial professionals acquire and commit to a
mission statement as early as possible. My professional and
personal mission statement is to provide financial literacy in
low-income areas and to teach others how to become financially
independent. Financial planning is an enabling resource that
assists disenfranchised communities build retirement funds,
avoid debt, and acquire assets. To ensure the success of my
mission, it is necessary to contemplate how my background,
values, ethical stance, and role as a leader influence my mission
statement.
Gifts, Passions, and Circumstances
My unique gifts strategically position me to carry out my
mission statement. I have a passion for writing and a natural
aptitude for fleshing out ideas and putting them on paper. I was
homeschooled most of my life and I spent a lot of time alone
growing up. This solitary lifestyle led me to occupy my spare
time with reading science fiction and graphic novels. When I
was 13 years old I attended a speech by novelist Steven King,
who inspired me to write my own fiction and develop my
passion for writing. Outside of serving as a creative outlet,
writing is an important skill that will contribute to the success
of my mission statement. Financial information can often be

2. confusing and intimidating for individuals who do not have the
proper training to understand it. Having exceptional writing
skills can help breakdown information into manageable parts
and disseminate it in a user-friendly manner. For example, if
someone were interested in investing in stocks and bonds, I
could write them a short, concise, and easy to read manual that
will help them get started. My writing skills are an integral part
of delivering my service to consumers who are in need of my
assistance.
My professional goals also help build my mission statement. I
am majoring in accounting and after finishing my degree I plan
to work in a public accounting firm. Public accounting entails
much more than crunching numbers and balancing expense
reports. An accountant is often one of the most
articulate and trusted personnel in a corporation. Much like
language translators, accountants translate financial information
for businesses, stockholders, or potential investors who serve as
the backbone of the American economy. The valuable
experience gained through working as an accountant will help
develop my understanding of managing and earning money. At
its core, financial literacy is really the art of understanding how
money works in the realm of personal financing (US
Department of Treasury, 2013). Who better to advise
individuals on financial matters than a formally trained
accountant? Experience is a stepping-stone to acquiring the
trust of communities who are looking for guidance in a very
sensitive part of their lives. Money problems rip families apart
and they need to know that I have all the qualifications to solve
their issues. Thus, fulfilling my own professional goals is an
important part of my mission statement.
Ethical Stance

3. The value I stand for is freedom. The ability to pursue whatever
someone perceives to make him or her happy is often taken for
granted. In fact, much of the world is still deprived of freedom
at its most basic level. That is a shame because it is in the state
of freedom where individuals learn, grow, and experience all
that life has to offer. I would never want to be limited to what I
can become because of outside restrictions. However, I
recognize that freedom also makes me 100 percent responsible
for my failures. The silver lining is that freedom offers the
choice to fail and restart and unlimited amount of times. I
believe it is imperative to protect and fight for your freedom in
all aspects of life.
Freedom guides my decision making in a significant way.
Typically, when I am making a decision I like to identify the
problem and review the facts first. Once I am satisfied with my
understanding of the problem, I start to search for alternative
solutions. This stage is heavily influenced by my value of
freedom. I always make sure that I find at least one alternative
solution to my problem, which will essentially retain my
freedom to make a choice. I do not believe in destiny. I aspire
to build my life out of deliberately made decisions where I had
at least one other choice to contemplate. My decision making
style forces me to accept responsibility for my mistakes, come
to terms with them,
and ultimately become a stronger person because of them. My
high regard for freedom also influences what ethical stance I
subscribe to.
The ethical system that resonates the most with me is objectivist
ethics. Objectivists ethics is grounded in the belief that reality
is what can be perceived with the human senses and that

4. rational judgment are the primary means of knowing the world
(Peikoff, 1993). With reason at its core, objectivist ethics
advocates the idea of rational self-interest, which entails using
human reason to find out what the facts are and how to best use
them to promote your own self-interest (Peikoff, 1993).
Principally, objectivism positions an individual’s happiness and
interest as the highest value in a person’s life. This ethical
system might seem like an unlikely fit for my mission
statement, but the connections really lies in the nuance of its
principles.
My mission statement is to provide a resource for others to use
and gain insight into personal finance. The resource is there to
be exploited upon at the whims of the communities I would like
to serve. I am really helping others help themselves. Acting as a
facilitator, instead of a nanny, is the best way to help others
internalize complicated concepts like financial literacy. In
addition, providing this resource is in my own self-interest
because I do so selfishly and for my own pleasure. I genuinely
enjoy the feeling of helping others and using my skills to make
a real difference in the world. In addition, I like the opportunity
to build social and work-related skills that come when I help
others.
My value of freedom is a centerpiece of Objectivists Ethics.
Objectivism establishes a person’s right to live free from force,
own property, and pursue their rational self-interest (Peikoff,
1993). For example, entrepreneurs start new companies to fulfill
their own ambitions or monetary goals. In a perfect Objectivist
world, the only force that could impede entrepreneurs is natural
economic competition. This scenario reflects the ideal state of
freedom where individual responsibility and risk interact to
produce maximum human happiness. In effect, objectivist ethics
views people as achievement oriented individuals who exist to
accomplish great feats with their reason alone. I believe it is
this part of the objectivist ideology that intrigues me so much.

5. There is something beautiful about
breaking down the limits of the human mind. I expect to apply
this ethical system in my professional and personal mission
statement.
I developed this ethical stance during the Great Recession of
2008. At the time, I was a freshman in community college
where I struggled to budget for books, gas, and other living
expenses. Finding a job without any marketable skills was
nearly impossible and the few interviews I did attend all ended
in cold rejections. The closer I found myself to financi al
uncertainty, the more I felt helpless and unable to mend my
battered morale. It was at this time that I discovered Ayn
Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, and felt captivated by its
characters’ unrelenting determination to pursue their own
aspirations. Mirroring my own precarious situation, Atlas
Shrugged features a parallel world mired in a deep depression
and soaring unemployment. Nonetheless, it is the protagonists’
(Dagny Taggart) sharp awareness of her superior intellectual
abilities that overcame these barriers at the end of the novel. I
felt a small fire burn in my stomach after reading Atlas
Shrugged, and instantly attempted to model myself to these
characters as best I could. I did not secure a job until my
sophomore year, but I do credit my discovery of objectivist
ethics for helping me stay confident in my own abilities when
circumstances challenged me to doubt them in a significant
way.
Ethical Challenges
Ethical challenges in my future career as an accountant are
surely inevitable. Recent accounting scandals like Enron and
WorldCom have made the intentional manipulation of financial

6. information a realistic ethical obstacle in my future. The
pressure to meet the expectations of investors in the stock
market has pushed seemingly ethical business leaders to ask
their accountants to leave out figures that might cast their
business in a bad light. Omissions in accounting are a nuanced
subject with a myriad of different interpretations. Generally
Accepted Accounting Principals, or GAAP, states that
information is material when “omitting it or misstating it could
influence decisions that users make” (Kieso, Weygandt, &
Warfield, 2012, p. 49). Following this guideline is difficult
because it requires the professional and ethical judgment of the
accountant in question. For example, suppose a manager asked
an accountant to hide a small illegal bribe from their quarterly
income statement. The
accountant’s dilemma is clear, the amount of the bribe might be
quantitatively immaterial, but qualitatively significant to
investors who perceive bribery as a sign of desperation. I will
be committed to presenting financial presentation with honesty
and integrity in my future career as an accountant.
Another ethical challenge is succumbing to the power of greed.
Accountants are compensated well for their expertise and are
often promoted to the higher echelons of the corporate structure
(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). If I ever begin to monitor
my bank account more than my noble goals and values than I
will be acting unethically. In fact, one of the five principles of
ethical leadership is serving others (Northouse, 2013, p. 431). If
I am to actualize my goal of providing financial literacy, I
should contemplate how to best allocate my future resources.
Greedily working to earn a better living is not the best use of
my resources. I must strive to act as a messenger of my vision
within my organization instead of greedily consuming resources
gratuitously.

7. My method of handling future ethical dilemmas is two-fold.
First, I will stay true to my value of freedom. If I were in a
situation where I was asked to manipulate financial information,
I would evaluate whether doing so will provide an equal amount
of liberty for all parties involved. In this manner I am showing
respect for users of financial reports, as well as for the company
that employs me. Deception is a natural restriction to someone’s
access to vital knowledge, so in that particularly case I would
refuse. In addition, I would employ the use of ethical models
like the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule states that one should
“do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (as cited
in Northouse, 2013, p. 434). Thus, if I lived in a low -income
neighborhood without any resources to help me manage my
money better, I would be very grateful if a generous stranger
was willing to help me acquire that knowledge. Using these
strategies I would not let any ethical indiscretions impede my
noble goal.
Leadership Style
My understanding of leadership theory is that it is a tool that
has a direct impact on the bottom line of corporations.
Understanding the different methods of organizing people to
achieve a goal is an invaluable commodity in today’s
competitive business world. A strong leader can inspire
personnel to
perform above and beyond their expected performance if left to
their own devices. Companies spend millions of dollars to
reward their executive teams for using their leadership skills to
increase profit margins, decrease variable costs, or open new
revenue streams in developing economies. It is key
achievements like these that constitute the difference between

8. success and bankruptcy for a business. In short, I believe
leadership theory is much more than abstract theories; it
happens everyday and harbors real world implications in the
business world.
Establishing the relevancy of leadership theory is an important
stepping-stone to distinguishing my personal leadership style.
After taking several leadership assessments I found that my
leadership style is Middle-of-the Road Management. Middle-of-
the-Road Management is based on the style approach to
leadership, which “focuses exclusively on what leaders do and
how they act” (Northouse, 2013, p. 75). A leaders’ specific
behavior is then charted in the Leadership Grid, which measures
a leaders’ behavior through their concerns for production and
concerns for people (2013, p. 81). A leader with the Middle-of-
the-Road style is moderately concerned with both achieving
goals and satisfying the social needs of their follower s (2012, p.
79). I agree with this description of my leadership style because
I do compromise in the name of progress in a group setting. For
example, in a recent group project I delegated the task of
creating Excel spreadsheets to one of my teammates who was
dissatisfied with the “busy work” she had been assigned. I
empathized with her frustration and understood that keeping my
group members happy would increase their productivity in the
long run. I certainly could have completed the spreadsheet at a
much quicker pace, but I compromised in this respect to
complete the overall project on time.
My new awareness of my Middle-of-the-Road Management style
is particularly helpful in carrying out my mission statement. At
its core, financial literacy is a communi ty service that requires a
compassionate leader who genuinely cares about the financial
welfare of its beneficiaries. At the same time running a complex
organization of this nature calls for a leader who is able to
instill financial discipline through education and individual
responsibility. No one magically wakes up and becomes a

9. financially literate person. It takes the nurturing patience and
result driven behavior of the Middle-of-
the-Road Management style. I am hopeful that I can further
develop my leadership style and service my community to the
best of my abilities.
Conclusion
Analyzing the influences of my background, values, ethical
stance, and role as a leader is imperative toward delivering
financial literacy to impoverished communities. The importance
of this reflection stems from the fact that it heightens my
understanding of the skills and knowledge that I will need to
attain for my personal and professional development. I am
hopeful I will continue to remain critical of the impact of my
leadership choices in my future followers.