BUS 119: Exploring Ethical Leadership Through Clarence Otis Jr.

This report provides an analysis of Clarence Otis Jr.'s ethical leadership in the business context, particularly during his tenure as CEO of Darden Restaurants. It explores his leadership journey, highlighting his administrative, conceptual, and interpersonal qualities that enabled him to overcome managerial challenges. The report discusses Otis' definition of leadership characteristics, emphasizing selflessness, teaching, and coaching. It also examines his democratic leadership style, emotional intelligence, and primary leadership skills such as accountability, ethics, and vision. The report concludes by highlighting Otis' ability to communicate a clear vision and foster a culture of trust and transparency within the organization.

Running Head: ETHICAL LEADERSHIP 1
Due 1/22, Submitted 1/26
Ethical leadership in business context
Kendrick D. Brown
BUS 119: Principles of Personal & Organizational Leadership
Dr. Arlene McConville
21 January 2019

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Ethical leadership in business context
Clarence Otis, Jr.
Mr. Clarence Otis Jr. is one of the most successful people in the business world. He has
served as a great leader, for many companies, in many positions and capacities. Clarence Otis Jr.
has a very historical leadership record ranging from Vice President to CEO. He began his
leadership journey in 1995 and is now the former CEO of Darden Restaurants, and one of the
most influential businessmen in Florida ("Clarence Otis," 2018). In his capacity as CEO, Otis
played a valuable role in the company by offering insights into risk management, financial
oversight, consumer services, and retail operations. Otis' great leadership experience gave him
profound perspective on management, strategy, operations of multiple companies, and the
groundwork for defining great leadership characteristics that can be carried on through
generations, across cultures, and positively impact the world of business. The most diverse
aspect about Otis was his ability in leadership. The administrative, conceptual, and interpersonal
qualities of Clarence Otis helped him to overcome different managerial challenges and became
one of the top CEOs in the world while leading organizations into greater heights through his
model of positive behavior in leadership.
Clarence Otis Jr. has faced many challenges and adversities throughout his career. Otis
has demonstrated exceptional leadership efforts, despite challenges and obstacles, during his
time served as the President of Smokey Barbeque and Grill, director of VF Corporation since
2014, The Travelers Companies since 2017, and MFS Mutual Funds ("Clarence Otis," 2018).
Mr. Otis has also served as an independent Director of Verizon Communications since early
2006 and as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where he critically provided far-
reaching risk-management experience. When hired by Darden Restaurants of Orlando in 1995,

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Otis served to the best of his ability in the position of treasurer to oversee the financial activities
of over 1200 restaurants. This was very challenging, and the coordination was hectic. The
restaurants' performance was not optimal, but Otis was determined to make improvements and
increase quality and revenue in his new role. During this time, he also faced opposition due to
racism, with resistance to African Americans holding positions of power within the business
world. Despite the challenges and opposition encountered, Otis believed in the positive influence
of motivation, both individually, and as a team within a company. He often motivated those who
worked under him, in various ways, and this significantly improved the overall operation of the
company. This motivational way of leadership leads to increased activities within the company,
across the US. He often said that one should never be satisfied with what he has, but instead
continually strive for further success. Another trait which led to Otis' success as CEO was his
resistance to failure. He never gave up on his innovative ideas, and he believed in a philosophy
that prosperity came from always thinking about others first and putting the focus on team
building and less emphasis on just getting the work done (New York Times, 2009). Otis
overcame most challenges by seeking internal motivation and striving to overcome any
obstacles. He was determined to succeed and believing in himself played a significant role in his
success.
Otis' Definition of Leadership Characteristics
Otis' unique characteristics of successful leadership resulted in significant value added to
the organizations he served, including Darden Restaurants. When asked what Darden seeks in
selecting a leader, Otis replied that they consider selfless characters. He defined selfless as
"consistently portraying a focus on others rather than one's self" (LeBlanc, 2014, n.p.). Otis also
believes that a successful leader must lead by teaching and coaching his or her staff. Being

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teachers and coaches leads to significant insight into leadership, and one that significantly and
positively serves many organizations and corporations well.
Otis' description of Darden's leadership relates to that of Dave George, the President of
Olive Garden. George believes that there is no limit to what the organization seeks to
accomplish, provided that all employees obtain equal credit. Workplaces could be of more value,
if all leaders embrace the characteristics of Otis, with the belief in focusing on team building
rather than an egocentric focus. Leaders of Darden have since been committed to doing the right
thing for their employees regardless of their authority. Otis further emphasized the importance of
kindness, carefulness, and thoughtfulness in leadership. According to him, employees lead by
selfless and attentive leaders appear happier and more customer-oriented (LeBlanc, 2014). Thus,
Otis claims that selflessness should be a primary governance competency in any organization.
During his time as CEO of Darden Restaurants, Otis' leadership changed significantly.
His behavioral approach to governance contributed to the success of Darden. Otis has identified
two original leadership deeds that include task-oriented behavior and people-oriented conduct.
He claims that employee-centered leaders established higher performance goals and supported
their subordinates better. Unlike employee-centered leaders, job-centered leaders are less
concerned with human needs and goal achievement (Daft & Marcic, 2017). Instead, the latter
emphasizes maintaining low production costs, meeting deadlines, and attaining production
efficiency. In real life situations, job-centered leadership leads to decreased job satisfaction and
less teamwork within a group of workers, essentially making it harder to reach deadlines and
optimal production efficiency goals. Therefore, as Otis believes, creating employee-centered
leaders leads to better production and efficiency overall.
Otis' Leadership Styles, Skills, and Vision

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Otis' leadership style was democratic. His main agenda at Darden was to improve the
profitability of the organization. He managed the company in such a way that he listened to
others and was willing to receive input and ideas on ways to improve the operations within the
company. He also demonstrated efficient utilization of financial resources and ideologies. He
always believed that his ideas were good for the organization, and commanded major decisions,
but he also gave a hearing ear to those who advised him on how to improve the company's
structure. Otis exercised servant leadership by being an example of what he wanted to see within
the company; this made many subordinates and managerial people work hard to accomplish their
duties. He was a humble person whose style of leadership aimed at the success of the
organization, and this gave him an opportunity to help others realize their usefulness to corporate
success. Otis exhibited a high inclination towards being a team player and wanted things done
possible. His democratic leadership system helped to command loyalty among workers, and this
made corporate decisions and operations very smooth and cohesive. Clarence also inspired the
best ideas among his workers, and this also increased the innovative nature of the company
towards meeting the obligations of customers regarding menus and food prices. There are
however some disadvantages related to democratic leadership. Leaders are prone to making
some mistakes which affect organizations in the long-run, but in most cases, democratic leaders
have the required emotional intelligence to develop ideas which create long term success in the
end. In the career or Clarence Otis Jr., there were many more positive outcomes of his
democratic leadership, than negatives.
Emotional intelligence is the capacity to understand one's emotions, those of others, and
thus learn to relate with other people effectively; this is an essential trait for successful leaders.
There are personal feelings and emotional variations which can affect corporate management and

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organizational commitment to success (Ford, 2002). A leader should understand when he/she is
under stress for instance, and then be able to make the appropriate changes to manage that stress
to relate well with others for the good of the organization. There are situations which call for
calmness, and this starts with the leaders at the top (Ovans, 2015). A leader should, therefore,
possess the following qualities: self-awareness, motivation, and empathy. These qualities will
thus improve emotional intelligence and have a positive impact on further leadership. Emotional
intelligence is essential when there is a crisis in an organization, which requires a leader to make
a swift decision, in the best manner possible. When a leader doesn't know how to respond
regarding the issue, Otis believes taking a calm approach to react with an all-inclusive decision
to resume to business as usual promptly, is the best way to resolve the problem. Otis considers
emotional intelligence is also a great way to gain insight as a leader; to understand the
subordinates who are committed to their duties, and possible changes that could be made to
improve an organization's success and performance. Clarence Otis Jr. is an excellent example of
a leader with emotional intelligence considering the way he would nurture innovative ideas from
within his team.
On the contrary, a leader also needs the courage to make decisions for an organization
without inquiry from other people. Otis, for instance, was a successful CEO because he was able
to develop and implement ideas without consulting, nor market-testing. Emotional intelligence,
in combination with other individual leadership qualities and gifts, enables leaders to withstand
the pressure it takes to become innovative leaders within the business world.
Primary leadership skills are qualities that help a leader to convey trustworthiness, with
skills such as accountability, confidentiality, ethics, and professionalism. Great leaders are
transparent and accountable to all team members, and Otis is an excellent example of this.

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Accountability minimizes misappropriation of resources, and high-profile, successful leaders
perform operations in a transparent manner that reduces this risk. A great leader like Otis also
demonstrates excellent business ethics and expresses consistent behavior toward employees.
Ethics in the corporate world helps to create a professional standard used to make many
decisions, best exemplified by top leaders. Business ethics promotes professionalism and
minimizes chances of employee misbehavior. Otis was ethical in his leadership, and at no point
was he was involved in unethical and immoral activities. Credibility and emotional intelligence,
as mentioned above, are other skills that leaders should possess, and again that Otis was of a
great example. These skills improve the performance of an organization by making leaders
focused. Credible leadership decisions need to develop with the aid of modern strategies,
including consideration for all factors before initiating a decision that can affect the operations of
an organization, and being original and always responding with care and logic. Another
significant factor in great leadership is being knowledgeable and emotionally intelligent enough
to self-assess previous endeavors. Assessment of prior failure and success is a substantial source
of a learning experience for leaders. Otis was a great example of a high-profile leader that was
wiser for his self-assessment of past success and failure; typically, one cannot succeed, without
prior failure.
A great leader is wise to clearly and concisely communicate a vision, a long-term plan
and set the tone of the organization for increased corporate success. When leaders function this
way, organizations become more inclined to succeed, develop procedural improvements, and
increased efficiency and time management for success. However, leaders should be somewhat
restrictive with whom they choose to communicate their vision, and Otis preferred being
secretive in his operations. Otis believed that while leaders should be transparent with their

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employees, only trusted members of the board of directors should have access to the company's
most important secrets; a wise leader has the intuitive nature to determine those people. Knowing
your trusted members also improves the satisfaction of workers and thus enhances morale and
performance.
Furthermore, a vision acts as a guide to an organization, and when leaders communicate
the vision, evaluation of the performance of an organization becomes easy. Visionary leaders
subsequently pass down character traits to their subordinates, and this builds new talent within
management. Vision in leadership also aids in organizational development, efficient allocation of
resources, and the initiation of development projects which have a long-lasting impact on the
performance of organizations.
Otis Groomed Followers to Become Leaders
Clarence Otis helped many people, including those who worked under him, to become
better leaders through the way he organized operations. His leadership built upon teamwork
principles believed in giving all employees a chance to express ideas about improving processes.
Clarence Otis developed three major mentoring activities within his leadership, that is,
motivation, competence development and acting as a role model to his employees. Houston,
(2010) cited the words developed by Clarence encouraging employees to dream big for
themselves. In addition, Clarence developed a business system that would enable consistence
development of employees through the various ranks within the business. While developing his
encouragement message, Otis gave an example of the Olive Garden president who once served
as a cook in Red Lobster. Furthermore, Otis encouraged team work among the employees which
helped in developing the skills and competency in their various fields. More so, his presence in
the teamwork offered the employees an opportunity to learn the various leadership skills

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developed. According to Otis, leaders should offer services to their subordinates by serving as
coaches and teachers of their leadership skills (LeBlanc, 2014). Otis saw the value in individuals
in a team depending on one another, including himself, and this style fosters leadership grows
within organizations. Otis would also strive to teach his teams, that leaders should be willing to
make decisions on behalf of the organizations they lead. This teamwork fostering leadership
insight has subsequently been adopted by other leaders in different sectors, in current times, and
it has proved to be very instrumental in corporate success. Leaders should also aim at
empowering other people who are not their direct responsibility, that is, out group members
(Chapter 10, 2019). The consideration should be developed on various leadership skills including
empathy and selflessness. These traits help a leader to take the outer group as their responsibility.
Clarence illustrated the mentioned skills by condemning poor pay to employees by other
companies (Houston, 2010). The act showed that Otis was sympathetic for poorly paid
employees who work hard to offer their services to their employers.
Member Listening Skills and Conflict Management in Leaders
Otis was a great example of how leaders should possess out-group member listening
skills and be able to handle conflicts amongst their subordinates. Applying listening and conflict
resolution skills create confidence within teams and significantly helps in times of challenges.
Leaders who possess excellent interpersonal skills can endure the difficulties employees face,
and this gives them a chance to strategize on organizational forward progression. Leaders should
also be able to manage conflict between employees and be able to successfully navigate conflict
resolution to achieve a positive orientation toward the responsibilities and goals of the
organization. Conflict management and resolution require leaders to be able to analyze different
situations and establish the connection between circumstances and conflict to result in the best

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outcome, and Otis was a great teacher of this philosophy. Otis brought up important insights
about out-group members and conflict management. The development was based on the negative
effects that develop from the neglect of out-group members. The effects include, conflict
development within the organization and development of strikes. In addition, out group members
may hinder team work development thus lowering the productivity of an organization. Following
the diverse effects developed by out group members, leaders should find ways of involving the
members within organizational activities. Among the various ways to achieve the inclusion
include respect for the group and consideration of out-group member’s contributions. The
involvement of the out-group members helps channel all the stakeholder’s energy toward
achieving the given business goal.
Promoting Diversity and Inclusion
An organization is capable of embodying diversity and inclusion in a multitude of ways.
Leaders should understand the individual abilities of workers and try to blend different talent.
Otis believed that on top of passion and ambition consideration on team building, emphasis
should also be developed on comfortability and uncertainty, that is, whether folks are
comfortable with diversity within people and circumstance (Houston, 2010 ). Diversity and
variety are needed when operating an organization, and leaders can ensure their organizations
achieve diversity in different areas through hiring and recruiting employees from various ethnic,
racial, circumstance and religious backgrounds. Great leaders also consider different gender
mainstreams when hiring new employees, and this advocate for inclusion. Great leaders like Otis
also ensure that their organizations embrace modernity and fairness when giving promotions, by
basing promotions on performance rather than outdated societal norms, favoritism, or cultural
inequities. When diversity and inclusion ideals are incorporated, through the vision of their

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visionary leaders, it bodes well for the continued overall success of the company. Diversity is
mostly developed to improve the services and products of a company as well as to increase a
business market share. The embrace of business diversity has been developed to ensure
compatibility with the multicultural society in addition to fairness and equality. Furthermore, the
diversity development has ensured the development of inclusivity where business is struggling to
be all inclusive (Nair & Vohra, 2015). Inclusivity is being extended on the basis of gender
balance, racial consideration and ethnicity. Following diversity and inclusion development
businesses are aiming at developing equality despite the various differences outlined.
Benefits of Ethical Leadership
Ethical leadership entails leadership developed on principles of doing right, that is,
leadership developed on moral behavior (Mihelic et al, 2010). Ethical leadership have several
benefits as illustrated below. Leadership developed on ethics ensures proper decision making
since ethical leaders always mind of the consequences of their actions to the organization at
large. As a result, decisions are developed based on the welfare of the business and business
stakeholders. Ethical leadership also helps develop a culture of moral behaviors to be observed
within an organization since the leaders act as role model to their subordinates. In addition,
ethical leaders develop good relationship with their subordinates since they take care of their
needs which enhances teamwork development within a business system. Following the
conducive environment developed by ethics observance businesses are able to realize their
maximum potential increasing production and profits. For this reason, businesses should develop
leadership ethics within their system to ensure success.
The Ethical Nature of Clarence Otis Jr.

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Clarence Otis has proofed to be an ethical leader since he has shown the employment of
ethical characteristics in his leadership. The characters developed include, authenticity since he
could develop a fact and focus on to achieving it (Bello, 2012). Otis believe in teamwork and
coaching of subordinates which he has achieved throughout his leadership. Otis has also
developed integrity and honesty by being accountable of organizational resources and utilizing
them to the benefit of the organization. As a result, Clarence has always developed a huge
positive impact in Darden Restaurants. Furthermore, he has been an empowering and motivating
leader who minds the welfare of others within the organization. Following his motivational
efforts, he has served as a mentor to many leaders, more so, to leaders within Darden
administration. Clarence Otis is therefore an ethical leader since he has observed the business
leadership ethics ensuring maximum output within the organization, more so, an increase in
business profits and expansion.
Conclusion
In conclusion, great visionary leaders exude great passion; teamwork focused and
leadership fostering environment, emotional intelligence, in combination with excellent
communication and transparency to lead successful companies and high-profile organizations.
Clarence Otis Jr. was a successful CEO as a result of an exceptional commitment to service and
empowerment of others. A great business leader like Otis exhibits creativity, excellent
interpersonal skills such as accountability and confidentiality, outstanding business ethics, and
does not shy away from diversity when building a team. Leaders like Clarence Otis Jr. are crucial
to the success of organizations. Success doesn't happen overnight, but with great challenge
comes great success; and when leaders are committed to accomplishing goals, while overcoming
any obstacles, for the overall achievement of long-term vision and goals, successful

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organizations are born. Despite his high-profile in management, Otis believed a selfless heart
partially determines the success of any governance, as well as being employee-oriented vs. task
oriented. Otis also underscores kindness, carefulness, and thoughtfulness in leadership to build a
successful team. With all these characteristics working together, a successful leader can be born,
through the influence and groundwork laid by Mr. Clarence Otis.

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