When it comes to leadership development models, one thing’s for sure: there’s no shortage. We have the great man, behavioral, situational, transactional, transformational, transforming, diamond, authentic, principled, adaptive, directive, supportive, group-centered, team-based, participative, servant and, let us never forget—the one-minute!

Many of these models broach the subject of ethics in leadership.^1,2,3 Usually it’s relegated to a subsection of the related book or article, sometimes a chapter. The Four-V Model of Ethical Leadership is different in this regard. Ethics is not an aspect of the model. It’s the whole enchilada, the model’s ends and its means. According to the Four-V model, ethics is the sine qua non of leadership, and an unethical leader is a contradiction in terms.