Ethics Shmethics

Great Leadership insights in ethics from an organization that has been in existence for over 1500 years!

2012-02-17T09:09:00.000-08:00

Ten steps toward an Ethics-based Organization
1. Ethical values are always explicit.
2. Ethical value statements must be well thought out and limited in number.
3. A clear explanation as to why these are ethical values for the organization.
4. All employees must be formally and regularly reminded about ethical values.
5. Ethical values are an integral part of screening, hiring and training.
6. Leaders must set the highest example of ethical behavior.
7. There must be unwavering equality in enforcing ethical rules and moral standards.
8. There must always be a clearly understood enforcement mechanism.
9. The leader must design the organization so that the benefit of community membership in the organization, far outweighs the cost of violating its rules.
10. The survival of the organization and the good of the community must take precedence over organizational fairness and second chances.
From the book:The Benedictine Rule of Leadership: by Craig and Oliver Galbraith.

Ethics Audit to consider for your organization

2012-02-15T08:09:00.001-08:00

1. Do you have a formal code of ethics? Is it reinforced? How widely distributed?
2. Are employees at all levels trained in ethical decision making?
3.Do employees have formal channels available to make their concerns known?
4.Is misconduct disciplined swiftly and justly within the organization?
5. Is integrity emphasized, particularly to new employees?
6. How are senior managers perceived by subordinated in terms of their integrity?
7. How do such leaders model ethical behavior?

Linda Trevino, Penn State Smeal College of Business

Questions to help define ethical issues and appropriate leadership behaviors.

2012-02-10T12:38:00.000-08:00

1. What are specific ethical behaviors that are required of all leaders?

2. What are the consequences if they don’t behave ethically?

3. What are the situations that people that people encounter that could lead them into a grey area?

4. How should grey areas be handled?

5. How should people make decisions when they encounter difficult situations?

6. Where might leaders fall into grey areas while implementing our goals and values?

7. What are the areas where we will not tolerate compromise?

8. What are the areas of flexibility?

9. Where do we need to clarify our mission and values, to make it clear that we are an ethical organization, and ethics are not negotiable?

10. How can we more effectively recruit, recognize and retain ethical leaders?

Values are caught not taught!

2012-02-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

Isn't it about time that leaders stand up for values and be willing to pay the price, if necessary, for living them out?
If leaders think that that they are living out their values and that their followers are "buying into” those values, then the question for those leaders is: "What percentage of employees can cite the organization’s decision or current example of conduct exemplifying the organizations values?"
The answers will be very telling!

Need to change the term "Ethics training."

2012-02-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

We need to find another title other than "ethics training". Reason being, is that the term ethics training tends to put people on the defensive and gives them the perception that they "need" ethics training because they're not perceived to be ethical.

How about something like: What do you do? How to do the right thing, at the right time for the right reason?

Four Leadership Principles from Dupont

2012-01-26T06:52:00.000-08:00

1. Focus on what you can control.
* Find out things we can do something about and get about doing them.

2. Adopt a new trajectory by rethinking your business model.
* Get people thinking differently.

3. Communication is key.
* When we have an aligned team that underestands very clearly what the goals and
tradeoffs are, that's when things can absolutely happen.

4. Maintain pride around the company's mission.

By Ellen Kullman, CEO, Dupont

Why moral principles are in need of reinforcement.

2012-01-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

1. Executives can be taught or encouraged to do more than analyze, to step out from behind the finanical analytical lens and come from an issue from the perspective of right and wrong and an appropriate balance of values.

2.A strong ethical leadership needs a strong moral compass.(which is really the right way to think about a question).

3.Ethical challenges for leaders today:
* How you do the day-to-day work of conducting business.
* Understand what's is controllable and what is not.
* Transparency issues: what to say, when and why as well as what not to say, when and
why?

Bottomline: What is the right thing to do?

Trust Barometer 2011

2012-01-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

Trust Barometer 2011

"One shot" ethics training is useless and a waste of money.

2012-01-21T07:05:00.000-08:00

We all know the need for ethics training, now all we need is ethics!

There are so many possibilities, for all budgets in developing impactful ethics training.
Organizations that are genuine in their desire to offer ethics training to all employees should seriously consider developing a fully integrated ethics training program.
In my experience for over 20 years in ethics training, I believe that such ethics training programs should minimally require the following:

1. A comprehensive mission/values statement and/or code of conduct that all employees know and fully understand. (I suggest reviewing and updating these documents every two years.)
2. Communication vehicles that are generally popular among employees (intranet, classes, manuals, staff meetings, email) where messages from executives and/or well respected individuals reinforce the company’s focus on good business ethics, on an ongoing basis. (Not just a one time deal).
3. Training sessions that not only define behavior but apply principles to situations that employees actually face in their business dealings. The use of case studies, interactive activities, decision making strategies and techniques are vital in providing any credible training program.
Have you ever visited a place of business where it appeared that ALL employees ‘got the memo’ on how to treat each customer with the utmost respect? Customer service first? Integrity and ethics above all?
So what’s the culture of your organization? How has it been communicated? By the behavior of the executives? Via email, intranet? By the unwritten ‘rules’? How are messages circulated and communicated in your organization? How do you know what is acceptable behavior and what is not?
Therefore, when it comes to ethics training and developing a culture of integrity, values and ethics, a well planned, fully integrated, ongoing training program is definitely worth the investment.

Frank Bucaro wins prestigious speaking award for the third year in a row!

2012-01-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

For Immediate Release:

Frank C. Bucaro, CSP,CPAE, Earns Prestigious Top5 Speaker Designation in Management/Business

Frank C. Bucaro has been awarded the prestigious “Top5 Speaker” designation in 2012 by Speakers Platform, one of the United States most prominent speakers bureaus Out of hundreds of nominees, Frank has risen to become one of the world’s most respected and compelling speakers in Management/Business.

Each year, Speakers Platform recognizes five speakers, within ten popular topic areas, based on: expertise, professionalism, presentation skills, original contribution to the field and public votes cast at the Speaking.com Web site. Over 13,000 votes were cast from business leaders, educators, association members and others from around the world for the 2012 nominees.

Frank C. Bucaro, has won this award for three years in a row(2010,2011 and 2012) due to Frank’s expertise in managerial ethics and values based leadership development.

Top5 Speaker honorees receive a distinctive crystal award, are highlighted at the Speaking.com Web site and are permitted to use the distinctive Top5 graphics and designation in their marketing. Best of all, most honorees also enjoy a boost in their event bookings.

Contact: Frank C. Bucaro
Phone: 630-483-2276
Email: frank@frankbucaro.com
Location: Bartlett, IL 60103

Ethics and Compliance Forecast for 2012

2012-01-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

The corporate compliance insights magazine had an article by Steve Priest on what's on the horizon in 2012 in compliance and ethics.
Here they are.

1.Ethics pressures are building globally
2.Bribery enforcement is on a upswing.
3.Dot your "i's" and cross your "t's" when the government is your major customer.
4.The line blurs between bad governance and bad ethics.
5.Compliance is not enough.

So what now? Where are you planning to spenmd your training dollars????

Announcing my partnership with Global Ethics University for online leadership training

2012-01-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

I am proud to announce a strategic partnership between Frank C. Bucaro & Associates and Global Ethics University! Starting January 12th, Global Ethics University will be the exclusive online provider for Frank Bucaro's powerful ethical leadership courses. Now your management team can take Frank's hard-hitting leadership training courses online from anywhere in world. Global Ethics University's online learning management system make online earning easy, informative, and affordable. Managers can enroll individually with a credit card or a company can use Global Ethics University's powerful administrative tools to train a large global workforce.The first official course offering will be from Frank's powerful "Courageous Leader" program. This is a two hour leadership training course that train your mangers and executives to take a stand, make no excuses, and become inspirational ethical leaders of tomorrow. The course regularly sells for $149 online, but a special introductory discount of 10% is available now for a limited time. Save even more (up to 60% off) for large groups or company-wide accounts. This discount not only applies to Frank Bucaro's courses but to the entire Global Ethics University catalog of online courses and ethics paper curricula. Of course, Global Ethics University's interface is easily adaptable and customizable so any ethics course (including Frank's) can be custom tailored to meet your needs.
This strategic partnership between Frank Bucaro & Associates and Global Ethics University opens up a whole new world to training opportunities! You can choose Frank Bucaro's leadership courses for your managers AND add Global Ethics University's code of conduct, ethical decision-making, or harassment/diversity courses for the rest of your workforce. It's a winning formula for everyone in your organization. The Bucaro/GEU partnership gives your company quality, powerful, and affordable training for EVERY employee in your company, from the executive to the production worker. There's no better time than NOW to raise ethical bar. There no BETTER tools out there to make it happen. Don't wait. Call Frank Bucaro at 630-483-2276 or Global Ethics University at 1-877-77ETHIC today and let us help you change the culture of your organization from the ground up!

Here's your special link:
http://www.globalethicsuniversity.com/course-detail.php?val=111

and enter the code "leadr10." for your 10% savings on all courses.

Why Ethics matter in Brand Value

2012-01-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

1.Customers value trust.
2.Customers expect ethical behavior.
3.Customers place "their vote" by purchasing from ethical companies.
4.Word gets around when companies are responsibile and offer a great value.
5.Customers are thinking more before buying.
6.Customers are condsifering more variables.
7.Customers are making responsible consumption a priority.

The Milward Brown report

See what audiences said about Frank in 2011!

2012-01-06T07:59:00.000-08:00

I write to you today to rave about Frank Bucaro. Frank proved to be an outstanding keynote speaker when he recently spoke to the Academy of Doctors of Audiology. From his preparation and follow-up ahead of the convention, to his content, delivery and willingness to provide additional resources to ADA and its attendees, Frank displayed both professionalism and humility, which added significant credibility to his message.
Frank spoke to our group of approximately 300 audiologists on the five pillars of business development: reputation, trust and loyalty, accountable leadership, having a moral compass and stewardship in his keynote presentation, “Good Company: Be the Organization that People Want to Work For, Partner With, Invest In and Buy From.”

Frank combined real life experience and humor to create an engaging and thought-provoking experience for ADA attendees. He illustrated key messages about “doing the right thing” in a way that did not provoke defensiveness, but rather invoked a lasting desire by the audience to be better practitioners and better people.

Not only was his message meaningful, but it was also timely and timeless! Further, it was delivered in a way that allowed attendees to apply it immediately to their daily lives.

I would recommend Frank to any group who seeks a relevant message about business ethics, without the condescending undertones that such a delicate topic can bring.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

“Thank you for the excellent presentation you gave yesterday. It was tailored appropriately for our audience and perfectly set up the subject matter we presented. You are truly deserving of every speaker award on your resume! I will definitely look for opportunities where we can work together again.”

Charles K. Brown
NCH Marketing Services, Inc.
Deerfield, IL.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

“Thank you so much for being our closing speaker. You were terrific as usual! You’re always good and as always,(along with my own page of notes from your talk) I heard many wonderful things about your presentation as we were wrapping things up.
Thank you for helping us focus on what is important and for providing the tools to spread
the message.”
Patricia McLaughlin, Executive Director
Illinois Movers and Warehousemen’s Association
Springfield, IL

Four steps to decision making and two different types of training

2012-01-05T10:02:00.001-08:00

Individual decisions are made by: Intuition;Experience;Feelings;and External Authority. Compliance training deals with external authority and ethics training needs to focus on the first three. So where are your training dollars allocated?

Business vs. ethics: What India does!

2012-01-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2897

Ethics Training: To What End?

2011-12-12T14:28:00.001-08:00

A company could spend thousands on an ethics training program that has no affect on its employees. Especially in this challenging economy, people want to know, what is the ROI for an ethics training program? While the answer is debatable...I mean, how do you quantify the ethical infractions that DIDN'T happen? I certainly understand the concern for provable results for a program like this. I encourage you to take a deeper look at the actual training module to determine what results it could yield.
I am tired of seeing the effects of ineffective ethics training. I have determined that successful ethics training has common ingredients. The most important element is ongoing training, not just a one-time keynote without any follow up communication, training or reinforcement.
Why does ethics training fail? There are many answers to this question.....Maybe the two hours of ethics training a year is not enough to make a difference? Maybe the training content is not relevant to employees' daily responsibilities? Could it be that it's purely web-based and seeks to be compliant rather than effective? Maybe it's a great showdown but does not have the buy in or respect of participants. Does the training speak frankly to what are the real hot buttons facing employees?
An ongoing program that addresses ethical leadership, moral awareness, and decision making is a must! A program that speaks frankly to the heart of the matter and that can relate ethical behavior to participants' daily lives will be much more effective and will yield results for the long term! An ethics training program that provides the tools to create an ethical climate is the only way to approach ethics training!
Ethics training is not just a nicety that looks good to everyone else! It's a necessity if you want to decrease the odds of ethical problems before they become a potentially expensive legal problem, a public relations nightmare or a trauma to employee morale. How much would you invest to preserve your company's reputation, growth and profits? We have seen seemingly indestructible Fortune 500 companies collapse due to one major ethical violation, on a regular basis for the last 10 years! Let me ask....What are you doing to maintain your organization's ethical culture?

Ethics questions for leaders to ponder

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/2011/time-for-a-leadership-ethics-check/

Teachers, Principals and Ethics

2011-11-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

Last night on Rock Center with Brian Williams, a further report on the cheating scandal in the Atlanta Public School District was presented.

178 teachers and principals, for over 10 years, were changing test scoresof their students in their homes, etc.!! No one blew the whistle until an appointed committee got involved and got one teacher to tell all!As a former teacher, I think they all should have the certifications revoked.

What is happening here? Who gets punished? the children of course, who can't read or write at their grade level! Then Harry Smith, in the same interview, reported that there are many other school districts doing the same thing!!! No wonder we have ethics problems in the US i,e, Schools, businesses, politics,sports, what next?

Maybe it's time we teach those in education about ethics?

Ethics can be a process too!

2011-11-28T15:08:00.000-08:00

Ethics is a process of deciding what should be done. The goal therefore is to bring forth resources so that people can make better decisions.Ethics needs to give people conceptual tools to decide that one course of action is more appropriate than another.

The Moral High Road.

2011-11-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

When I started to focus on the morality of business and leadership in my research, I surveyed some past clients for their definition of moral awareness. One of the most striking definitions I received was the following:

“Moral awareness is when one is in touch with one’s innate sense of morality and can feel the moral component of events. Someone who does not have moral awareness does not notice the moral cues provided to him by his psyche ......"

Our business culture tends to shy away from using the word "moral" because it usually implies some sense of spirituality or religion, which may not fit succinctly in the business world. However, recent events that have led our entire economy down a dangerous path, have forced many to dive deeper into what exactly is the problem.

The problem is this: you cannot mandate or enforce an innate sense of morality. However, we can create a corporate culture where acting in the most moral and ethical way, is the norm. Morally aware people will be attracted to these types of 'high-road' companies. The morally unaware will be the minority.
How do we do this? There are universal moral obligations that need to be enacted upon in order to produce and maintain a culture of trust.
1. Put people first in decision making:
• Every decision that is made affects people, the time to discern those affects is in the process of making the decision, not after the decision is made.
2. Respect for individual human dignity:
• Always separate personhood from behavior. You have the right to disagree with one’s behavior, but no one has the right to attack one’s self esteem!
3. Treat all fairly:
• Everyone from the CEO down to the newly hired must “play” by the same rules, the same code of conduct, mission statement, values statement, code of ethics. Exceptions cannot be made if a true environment of trust is to be the norm.
4. Be honest:
• Always tell the truth. If you tell one lie, then you’ll tell another one and pretty soon you forgot what you lied about and it goes on and on and on. If you expect your people to tell you the truth and they have the right to expect of you!
• People will never accept change unless they trust the ones who created it. Honesty is the foundation of trust.

These four moral obligations need to be the cornerstone of leadership development. But, the onus is clearly on the leadership and the acute moral awareness of each leader to fully understand their impact and example by behavior, not by dictate.
The key is that leadership needs to have an innate sense of right and wrong for moral awareness to take hold. These four obligations become the guideposts for all to embrace.

Four questions for Ethical reflection

2011-11-18T11:15:00.001-08:00

1. What should we do?

2. What do we know?

3. What does it mean?

4. Why does it mean that?

Damaged Reputation case studies article

2011-11-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

This is a great article on corporate reputation damage.
http://events.ethicalcorp.com/documents/Reputation_Disaster_Extract.pdf

Reputation: Is the one you have, the one you want?

2011-11-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

I recently overheard a conversation between two people and it went like this…..

“Did you see that magazine article on ‘John Doe’? Didn’t you work for him a while back? It was a great article, nice write up, good photos, very positive description of how he grew the business!” The response from the other person was surprisingly lukewarm. ”Too bad he was not a very nice guy.” That response surprised me a bit and I started wondering how I might be described by people with whom I had previously worked.

One of my favorite books is “Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud – Business Lessons from the Ancient Rabbis,” by Larry Kahaner. In a concluding section of the book, it states, “…the Talmudic rabbis would sum up the secret of business success in one word: Reputation!”

We all have a reputation, but I don’t think we spend much time actively thinking about it. It might be productive once in a while to consider if the reputation we want is actually in line with the reputation we have, and I mean professional as well as personal. I don’t think the goal is necessarily to be viewed as “nice” by everyone, although I actually don’t know anyone who wants to be described as “the biggest jerk I ever met” either. If you are in the frame of mind for some introspection, here are a few questions to get the process started:

1. What do you want to be known for in your work? Maybe it is great customer service or being a subject matter expert, your quick response time, being principle driven and ethical. Maybe it is all of these.

2. Is there a gap between where you’d like to be and where you are now? Is there a process in place to evaluate how you are doing? If you are in a position of leadership, do you model the behavior that you value?

3. With family members, maybe you want to be known as a firm but fair parent or respectful and attentive to your elderly relatives? Maybe you think of yourself as considerate and respectful as a spouse or partner? Do you think you are viewed this way currently? If your answer is no to the last question, then ask if there are any changes you can make to bring the situation into alignment with the reputation you want?

In my business and in my family relationships, service is an important consideration. I hope my clients would agree, but I am confident my family would agree that I try to be of service whenever possible. (In the interest of fairness and balance I should also mention that patience is not one of my professed values, and that is a good thing because no one in my family would describe me as a “patient man” nor do I suppose I will ever have a reputation for patience.)

According to the author Ernest Bramah “A reputation for a thousand years may depend on the conduct of a single moment.” Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Bernie Madoff, and the Underwear Bomber all have a reputation...as do we. Let’s be sure that our reputations reflect the values that we esteem.

Frank C. Bucaro
Frank C. Bucaro & Associates, Inc.
www.frankbucaro.com
frank@frankbucaro.com
October 2011

Ethics in Walking the talk!

2011-10-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Great Article by my colleague Steve Priest.

Ethics: Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk
ShareThisby Steve Priest @ 2011-10-24

Category: Compliance, Ethics, Featured Columns, Thinking Globally About Integrity, Leadership & Human Behavior

Robert Galvin
You may not have read about it, but a second tech legend died this month. Robert Galvin, whose father founded Motorola, became CEO of the firm in 1959 and grew it from $290 million in revenue to $10.8 billion in 1990 when he retired as chairman. In his tenure the firm developed the first cell phone and built the first cell phone network. Motorola became synonymous with innovation and excellence—it, not GE, implemented Six Sigma as a quality management process first in the United States.

Motorola also became known for integrity. Well before the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines were introduced in 1991, Motorola had articulated two key beliefs: Uncompromising Integrity and Constant Respect for People. Most companies these days articulate values, principles or beliefs. Putting them into action—implementing and institutionalizing them—is much more challenging.

Motorola worked to drive these beliefs through the company, not just through communications but through management development processes and performance appraisals. The Key Beliefs became stakes in the ground. When I was working with them to develop a new code of conduct, I suggested adding a third key belief which I felt was a de facto belief given focus groups I had conducted with employees around the world: Total Quality. Motorola ‘s leadership rejected the idea—quality flowed from integrity and respect. The key beliefs were real.

I did not know Bob Galvin well. One strong memory is when a Motorola colleague and I were eating lunch in the company cafeteria, and Bob Galvin, then chairman of the executive committee, sat down with his tray at the table next to us. After a polite pause, my colleague cast a lure in front of Bob as adeptly as any angler: “Bob, we’re pretty close to finalizing a new code of conduct.” Instantly attentive, Bob asked several questions, asked to see a copy (which he later returned with several very smart suggestions) and said, “This is great. We need this. Just make sure you pay attention to the managers in the middle. My experience is that senior management will get this, and so will the people on the front lines. It is hardest for those in the middle.”

One way Motorola attended to managers in the middle was through stories. Before I did any work for Motorola, I benchmarked them for another client, and I heard the following story about Bob Galvin several times.

One morning in the early 1950s, Bob Galvin, then a VP, welcomed a sales executive into his office. “How did the sales trip to South America go?” asked Bob. The exec responded, “Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is we got the deal with the (South American)[i] government. The bad news is that they want us to increase our fee to $11 million dollars from $10 million, and deposit that million dollars in Swiss bank accounts for use by those who approve the deal.” The sales executive went on, “Bob, I know we don’t do business that way, so I turned down the deal on that basis.”

Remember, this was the early 1950s. No ethics programs. Twenty-five years before the FCPA. And the sale was not insubstantial. It represented about 5% of Motorola’s sales at the time, and was a very high margin. Still the sales executive knew “we don’t do business that way.”

Galvin responded, “Well done. But now I want you to do something more. I want you to go back to that government and tell them that not only are we not going to do business with them on their proposed terms, but we are not going to do business with them on our original terms until they demonstrate to us that they have reformed their purchasing practices.”

The sales executive saw his bonus disappear and replied, “Bob, isn’t that taking this ethics stuff a bit too far?” Galvin replied, “Absolutely not. Now we know for certain that their government is corrupt. If we know it, other governments know it and so do our competitors. If we do business with them now on any terms, even our own, we will be guilty by association and suspect by implication.”

I did most of my consulting for Motorola in the 1990s and early 2000s—close to 50 years after this event took place. And I heard this story everywhere—in Europe, in Asia, in Latin America and in the U.S. Employees got the details wrong. It happened in the 1970s. It took place in Vietnam. It involved $50 million dollars. But the story drift did not matter because they got the moral of the story right: At Motorola, we don’t pay bribes. Period.

It doesn’t matter where a person is from. This kind of story resonates. It is a primary responsibility of ethics and compliance officers to find these stories. Where in your organization has someone made a hard choice—a choice where doing the right thing cost the company some money in the short term?

Get your executives to tell the stories you find. Human beings remember stories better than any other content. Tell the good stories to counter all the negative ones they read in the media. We are surrounded by news of ethics scandals and failures. Some of them may even have occurred in your organization. You can’t ignore those stories. But tell the good ones too. Tell the good stories because they resonate and are true and beautiful. It may be the most important work you do this year, and will certainly be the most gratifying.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[i] Motorola has never officially disclosed the country involved to avoid unfairly embarrassing people not involved, and I will respect their decision here.

Photo of Bob Galvin courtesy of Galvin Electricity Initiative.

**********

About the Author
Steve Priest was described by The Wall Street Journal as “one of the most sought consultants to keep companies on the straight and narrow.” For seventeen years Steve was president of the Ethical Leadership Group (ELG), a consulting firm that specializes in ethics training & communications and compliance assessments. Steve now serves as founder of ELG and senior advisor at Global Compliance, the compliance solutions firm that ELG joined in 2007. For more information about his work, visit Steve's CCI author page.

To be trustworthy requires:

2011-10-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

1. The ability to discern right from wrong

2. Acting on your discernment,even at a personal cost.

3.Saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right and wrong.

Our ethics enemies in business today

2011-10-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

Seems to me that our real "enemies" in the workplace today are:

1. Our work habits
2. Corporate red tape
3. Self Deception
4. Unnecessary procedures
5. Lengthy processes
6. Outmoded attitudes

These 'enemies" need to be addressed and dealt with in any ethics/compliance training initiative or the training will fall on "deaf ears."

Trust & Ethics = Good Reputation

2011-10-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

According to a 2010 Deloitte Survey,nearly half of workers who plan to seek out new jobs, have been motivated by a loss of trust in their employer. Some 46% also complain about lack of transparency in internal communications and four in ten say they have been treated unethically.

Reputation is all about building trust in organizations.The companies that do this find that consumers prefer to deal with a company they trust and employees prefer to work at a company they are proud of.

What does this study tell us?

Trust and ethics in the modern economy

2011-10-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

"Trust is pivotal to the economy, and not merely social relations, as without it, currency will not be used, saving makes no sense, and transaction costs rise precipitously; in short, it is hard to conceive a modern economy without a strong element of trust running through it."
Amitai Etzioni;The Moral Dimension:Toward a New Economics.

Fall/Winter 2011-12 Values based leadership development programming

2011-10-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

I have decided to offer those that follow me on Twitter, a courtesy savings on any of my ethics programs booked by Oct.31,2011.

These savings are good from the Oct 31,2011 to March 31, 2012 for values based leadership training/ development,keynotes or seminars on behavioral ethics in the workplace,interactive ethics Webinars,and building an environment of trust programming.

Call me at 630-483-2276 and let's talk about how I might be able to help you, help your organzation with its ethics trainining initiatives.
Thanks,
Frank
frank@frankbucaro.com

Four questions to measure one's own ethics and trustworthiness

2011-10-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

1. Is my behavior predictable or erractic?

2. Do I communicate clearly or carelessly?

3. Do I treat promises seriously or lightly?

4. Am I forthright or dishonest?

These are ethical cultural settings.So what's your culture?

Taking the Moral High Ground-Creating an environment of Trust

2011-09-29T06:01:00.001-07:00

Business schools and required ethics training

2011-09-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

Business Schools Increasingly Require Students to Study EthicsSome graduate schools have offered courses in business ethics for decades.
By Menachem Wecker

September 20, 2011 RSS Feed Print When Lee Igel's students ask him why New York University doesn't require them to take business ethics courses, the associate professor reminds them of the codes of values that every scandalized organization handed out to new hires and plastered to every available surface.

"Did it make a difference? Of course not," Igel tells his management and organizational behavior classes at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. "[Students] did not need to learn the difference between right and wrong ... [but] how to apply the difference between right and wrong to their work."

Even if Igel manages to convince his students that business ethics courses are unnecessary, their classmates in the Stern School of Business are likely to be exposed to a very different perspective. Stern, which claims to have been one of the first business schools to require an ethics course more than 30 years ago, was ranked eighth on the Aspen Institute's 2009-2010 Global 100 List of business schools that prepare M.B.A.s for "social, ethical, and environmental stewardship."

Noah Schmutter, a part-time M.B.A. student at Stern, recently completed the school's required 1.5 credit class, Professional Responsibility, which taught him about insider trading and discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender, and disabilities. "It's mostly common sense," he says of the course, "but it's still worthwhile."

According to Schmutter, the course is required for all M.B.A. students, and in his program, students must complete the entire core curriculum—25.5 credits—before taking the course, so it will be "relatively fresh in our minds once we go back to work."

Schmutter's professor, who is general counsel for a financial services company, differentiated between ethics within and outside the workplace. "One of our readings compared the two situations to a poker game," Schmutter says. "Bluffing and deception are not considered immoral in a poker game, but they are in the real world. The business world is much like a poker game."

The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business is one of the few business schools that doesn't seem to have a business ethics class in its course catalog. In a chat on the school's website in April 2011, Ellie McDonald, associate director of admissions and marketing for Booth's evening and weekend M.B.A. programs, told a prospective student, "Chicago Booth does not have any classes specifically targeted to ethics, however, each professor incorporates that topic in their lectures."

[See our Best Business Schools rankings.]

Business students at other graduate schools across the nation—particularly in the wake of scandals surrounding Enron, Bernard Madoff, and others—can increasingly expect to take at least one ethics course. They are also likely to hear their school bicker with the competition about who is ahead of the social responsibility curve. Many of the schools listed in the Aspen Institute survey, as well as several professors and administrators who responded to a U.S.News & World Report query, cited the longevity of their ethics programs.

The University of Virginia says it houses "one of the first top-ranked business schools to establish a required, standalone first year course in ethics," and the University of Denver claims to have "one of the first interdisciplinary M.B.A. programs with a core theme of ethics and corporate responsibility." San Francisco State University flaunts a 25-year-old ethics requirement, while Allison Adams, media relations director of the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School, says the school's ethics requirement has been on the books for nearly five decades. The University of California—Berkeley goes so far as to say it has focused on preparing responsible business leaders since 1898.

8 Great Habits of Ethical Leaders

2011-09-21T09:40:00.001-07:00

Brand new MP3 interview on my homepage on these Moral Habits. Go to: www.frankbucaro.com Enjoy!

Moral Development and Leadership!

2011-09-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Leaders: steps to making ethical decisions

2011-09-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Failures of "ethical" leaders

2011-09-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

Leadership will fail because of:
1. Lack of transparency
2. Lack of trust
3. Lack of accountability
4. lack of stewardship

Values,virtues, ethics and leadership

2011-09-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

In these challenging times for many businesses, leaders need to periodically take a step back and spend time in reflection as to what their real influence is in their respective workplaces. Take time at the beginning and at the end of each day to ponder on how well you’ve done in staying true to values, mission, purpose and relationships.
Here’s an example of reflective questioning.
1. Did I practice any virtues today?
• Were you a person who shared and modeled integrity, trustworthiness, honesty or compassion?
• How did people around react to you today?
• Think of the best teacher you ever had and then make a list of all those characteristics of what made that person the best teacher. Every day before you go to work read the list and decide this is what you want to be remembered for.
2. Were you more positive than negative in your attitude and behavior?
• Consider the short term vs. long term consequences of your actions.
• Did you affirm, in some way, every person you encountered today?
• Remember, affirm self esteem and disagree with behavior and work at recognizing this distinction every day
3. Did I treat people with dignity and respect?
• All human beings have the right to be treated with dignity simply because they are human.
• Did you consciously try to separate personhood from behavior in each difficult situation?
4. How did I practice justice today?
• In what ways did you benefit those around you? In what ways were you a hindrance?
• On what basis did you decide what was just ,i.e. Mission Statement, Code of Ethics, Values statement, the law?
• How did you explain the decision? How was it accepted? What could you have done differently?
5. Did I make my organization better because I was there today?
• Was I better because I was a part of this organization?
• Was I able to get beyond my own interests to make the organization stronger?
• Was I able to draw upon the strengths of the organization to help me become more human?

It is important to remember that people tend to listen with their eyes more than with their ears. What you do, says so much more than what you say.
Consistent role modeling along with ongoing education in behavioral ethics, values and virtues, is a “slam dunk” combination for personal and business success.

Leaders, listen up!

2011-08-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

People want two things out of life:
1. a sense of belonging
2. to receive recognition

When leaders promote these, you get cooperation, when leaders don't, you get conflict.

This concept is true in a family, a classroom,or a business. Simple, isn't it?

Ethics and Bullying!

2011-08-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

Here's an ethical issue---- bullying by your boss. Besides firing the boss, what else can a company do?

http://tinyurl.com/3ht684w

Moral Leadership and Coaches

2011-08-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Now it's college coaches that are under legal fire for their seemingly lack of moral leadership behavior. What lesson does this send athletes and for what ultimate purpose..... getting the best atheletes signed and winning????

http://tinyurl.com/3jp3ytj

Negative or Postive Ethics: A Leader's Choice

2011-08-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

Negative ethics is to prevent a harm and tells employess what not to do.

Positive ethics is to promote good and gives employees guidelines for what they should do.

As a leader which would you prefer to foster and what are you doing to make sure it happens?

Ethics, Parents and price to pay!

2011-08-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/4x3odju

If one believes that the home is where our children get their values, then what does this say about teaching and modeling values, responsibility, and ethics?

Culture, Values and Leadership

2011-08-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

In a recent LRN study, they found:

1.Culture, values and leadership are now the critical priorities for building successful ethics and compliance initiatives.

2.57% of companies do not give ethical behaviors the same weight as business outcomes in performance evaluations.

3.54% never formally celebrate acts of ethical leadership

4.45% are concerned that the tone of middle management can create a critical disconnect in a company's leadership,management and workforce and needs to be addressed.

Where's the Ethics officer?

2011-08-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Where are the compliance and ethics professionals in these banks? Who's watching the store???

http://tinyurl.com/3v53cqt

Leadership and ethics- 8 key points

2011-08-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

http://linked2leadership.com/2011/08/15/the-great-8-habits/

Want to be ethical?

2011-08-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

Follow these simple points:

1. When in doubt, don't.

2. Don't lie, cheat or steal.

3.Put the welfare of others as a priority in your decision making.

4.Remember, ethics is a tough decision with the payout at the end.

Example of moral and ethical courage.

2011-07-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

Rent the movie "Of Gods and Men" if you want a genuine example of moral decision making and the price paid for it.

Where is the moral leadership today? Another Congressman resigning for sexual issues, members of both political parties playing games with our economy, school districts,(including teachers and principals), accused of test score cheating, etc.

Who's got moral and ethical courage anymore?????

Leadership is about morals and ethics

2011-07-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

When we think about ethics in leaderhsip, we also need to think about a leader's moral obligations to his/her people. These are four key moral obligations.
1. Put people first in your decision making.

2. Have respect for individual human dignity.

3. Treat all people fairly.

4. Always be honest.

The key here is not to think too much on these obligations, just do them and see what happens ethically and morally!

Ethics, Ethics, where for art thou??

2011-07-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

Finally, someone taking the ethics high road in Atlanta!

http://topics.11alive.com/atlanta%20public%20schools%20crct%20investigation/

There is an ethical right and wrong here and and not just a CYA excuse.

It's easy to keep your "ethics" focus!

2011-07-15T08:54:00.000-07:00

To keep your ethics focus remember these 3 points:

1. You can't change anybody but you!
Change is only an opportunity you can guide not control.

2. You can't give what you don't have!
If you are not what you want other people to be,then be quiet,until you become what you want others to be!

3. Repitition is the mother of learning.
If you want to be good at anything,you must practice it.
Keep practicing being ethical.

Ethics really isn't that hard.

Morals and ethics for Brokers? Interesting concept!

2011-07-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at ethics and morals for brokers.

A Morality Litmus Test for Your Broker
Posted: 7/12/11 06:04 PM ET Read more JP Morgan , Ponzi Scheme , Disney , Investing , Investors , Pta , Risk , Sec , Business News .

It's bad enough that Ponzi schemers continue to thrive. The limits these schemers will go to get your money know no bounds. According to a recent report, three former members of the PTA used their connection with a grade school in Los Angeles to bilk investors out of $14 million. The women allegedly represented they had the exclusive right to sell products from a local dairy to various Disney enterprises and others. They promised returns of up to 100 percent.

40 investors used their life savings and took out second mortgages to pony up their "investments." According to investigators, some of the money was spent on vacations, hotels, cars and gambling.

In another scheme, Christopher Pettengill pleaded guilty to a variety of fraud charges. He was charged with concealing information from investors about a foreign currency program, while touting the investment as low risk. Mr. Pettengill admitted making a personal credit card payment of $11,369 from proceeds of the fraud.

These schemes share a common theme: The promise of high returns without commensurate risk. But even if you are too smart to fall for this kind of scam, your investments may still be in danger. You need a morality litmus test before you entrust your retirement savings to any broker or adviser.

A timely case in point is J.P. Morgan Securities. In a release dated July 7, 2011, the SEC charged this venerable firm with fraudulently rigging at least 93 municipal bond reinvestment transactions in 31 states, generating "millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains." According to Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, "Municipal issuers and investors didn't stand a chance against the fraudulent strategies JPMS and others used to guarantee profits."

JPMS settled these charges by paying $51.2 million which will be returned to the affected municipalities and $177 million to settle parallel charges brought by federal and state authorities. As is typical in these matters, JPMS neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the complaint.

JPMS and its colleagues in the securities industry manage trillions of dollars of assets. Most of this money is actively managed, meaning they attempt to add "alpha" by beating designated benchmarks. The fact that overwhelming data indicates most active managers add "negative alpha", has had limited impact on these clients to date.

Investors "don't stand a chance" when dealing with brokers who view breaking the law and paying relatively trivial fines as a minor cost of doing business.

Just because it's business as usual for them, doesn't mean you should abandon your moral and ethical principles and continue to patronize them. A collateral benefit of using your moral compass is that your returns are likely to increase when you discover the benefits of a globally diversified portfolio of low management fee stock and bond index funds -- something your local broker is unlikely to discuss with you.

The views set forth in this blog are the opinions of the author alone and may not represent the views of any firm or entity with whom he is affiliated. The data, information, and content on this blog are for information, education, and non-commercial purposes only. Returns from index funds do not represent the performance of any investment advisory firm. The information on this blog does not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice and is limited to the dissemination of opinions on investing. No reader should construe these opinions as an offer of advisory services. Readers who require investment advice should retain the services of a competent investment professional. The information on this blog is not an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any securities or class of securities mentioned herein. Furthermore, the information on this blog should not be construed as an offer of advisory services. Please note that the author does not recommend specific securities nor is he responsible for comments made by persons posting on this blog.

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The lesson is be ethical and moral and one can still be successful!

Hope for Ethics in business

2011-07-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

Interesting article on the ethics of future generations.

Farewell to Rats and Snitches, Hello to “Doing the Right Thing” http://bit.ly/mQSQU7

Finally, we looking at ethics beyond the present and looking at ethics from a future perspective.

New study on Managing an Ethics crisis

2011-06-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.ethics.org/resource/accepting-responsibility-responsibly-corporate-response-times-crisis

Values based compliance training article

2011-06-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

In an article entitled “Interactive Ethics” in the March issue of Inside Counsel, author Brian Martin, senior vice president and general counsel of KLA-Tencor Corp., discusses some of the lessons learned when his company transformed its compliance and ethics training from a rules- based training program to an ethics-based training program. I found it to be a useful review of training for the compliance practitioner.

He began by discussing a similar point recently raised by Preet Bharara in his key note speech to Compliance Week 2011; that is, compliance with laws is not synonymous with ethical decision making, it is bigger. As lawyers, we are trained to counsel clients as to where the line is that they may not cross and then tell them not to step over it.

Both Preet Bharara and Brian Martin make clear that this approach can lead companies into significant difficulties. Bharara focused on the difficulties in which a company can find itself in if it is embroiled in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation. He offered one piece of advice, which I found particularly persuasive, and that was that if your company is so fragile that one subpoena from or a visit by the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigators will effectively destroy it, you should not be anywhere close to the line of violating the FCPA. Martin provides another perspective: “We have too many examples where corporate troubles ensued from a culture setting the behavioral expectation at compliance with laws i.e., as long as its legal approach.”

Martin related that his company moved from a rules-based compliance training to an ethics-based approach. He cited three general areas where his company had changed its approach in a manner to encourage employees to behave ethically. They are (1) The Code; (2) Ethics Training; and (3) You Make the Call.

1. The Code
Martin opined that most company code of conducts are heavy on “formalistic and complex policy and legal compliance statements.” However, they do not set forth a clear statement on “values and ethics.” This leads many non-lawyers in a company to find it very difficult to implement their company’s code of conduct in the everyday scenarios they face in the business world. Martin argues that this gap between a code of conduct and the real business world should be “filled in by the company’s values.” At Martin’s company this issue was addressed by reorganizing its code of conduct around the company’s core ethical values and renaming the code of conduct “Values in Action” to reflect the primacy of the company’s values and ethical standards.

2. Ethical Training
Martin next addressed the issue of training at his company. He recognized the difficulty of training “ethics” with some type of rules-based approach. He said that ethical training is much broader than simple rules and regulations training. A company must approach ethics in all facets of its business activities and in all roles throughout the company.

This begins with human resources in the hiring process where a company should hire only ethical candidates. It should continue throughout the employment tenure by not only providing the stick of disciplining those employees who commit ethical violations, but providing a structure to incentivize and reward those employees to do business ethically. He concluded this section by noting that “ethical training is not an event; it is delivered through observation and consistent leadership.”

3. You Make the Call
In part of his company’s overall ethical-based values training, Martin included a module, “You Make the Call,” in which he asked employees questions about scenarios which raised ethical concerns. He presented scenarios which could not be answered by simple reference to company polices. Rather employees were asked to address the scenarios and to discuss how they would handle each matter before the entire training class.

Martin noted that he found these discussions “fascinating” as employees from different disciplines within the company formulated how they would think through and act on the scenarios. He said that the answers generally involved some type of reference to both personal and company values, but at the end of the day it reinforced what the training was designed to convey “doing the right thing.” Martin concluded by noting that such training “equipped the business teams with ethical decision-making paradigms that are more durable than any policy could be.”

I certainly found Martin’s article very instructive in ways to think through the difference in rules-based compliance program and a values-based ethics program. His approach in training will provide the compliance practitioner with solid tools to implement in his or her company’s compliance training program which will help drive home the ethical values that you should try to impart. This may go a long way towards implementing Preet Bharara’s advise to do “more than the minimum” because aspiring to the minimum in a corporate compliance program because only doing the minimum is a recipe for disaster.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. © Thomas R. Fox, 2011

**********

Ethics, Honesty and Parents!

2011-06-10T05:28:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/6z4wzgx

What a refreshing way to start the day!

Moral, Ethical or just Legal?

2011-06-08T04:49:00.000-07:00

With Rep. Weiner's situation,let's look beyond the legal issues here. Would the moral and ethical thing to do, for him, be to resign? For is it not true that if one cheats in little things, one will cheat in big things? Now, we're not talking about finanical cheating here,but cheating of sorts none the less.

What should be Weiner's "High Road" behavior option?

Is there hope for the Ethically Challenged?

2011-05-31T08:03:00.001-07:00

During a spirited conversation in our office recently, the question was asked “what if someone just has lousy ethics? Is there any hope of improvement or are you just out of luck because that person just can’t change?”
This challenged me because for a number of years, I thought that you were either ethical or you weren’t. My views on the importance of decisive action on ethical problems have not changed.
Aristotle states: “Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.”
According to Aristotle, we can grow and expand in our virtuous behavior through habit. It might also provide more hope for the “ethically challenged.” It also sheds additional light on why virtuous leaders are so important. Leaders help to establish guidelines, not only by words, but by their actions. They need to also serve as examples to help “perfect by habit” good choices and virtuous behavior in the workplace.
Reflective questions, like these, will help us “perfect the habit” of being ethical.
1. Did I practice any virtues today?
• Was I a person who shared integrity, trustworthiness, honesty or compassion?
2. Did I do more harm than good? Or did I try to?
• Consider the short-long term consequences of your actions.
3. Did I treat people with dignity and respect?
• All people have the right to be treated with dignity simply because they are human.
4. Was I fair and just today?
• Whom did I benefit and whom did I burden?
• How did I decide?

Siutational Ethics? Is ethical leadership subjective?

2011-05-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

http://news.hereisthecity.com/2011/05/24/male-bankers-affairs-some-interesting-facts/

Interesting data on bankers. Cheat in one area of life usually leads to cheating on other areas as well.

Ethical leadership? Doesn't sound like it!

2011-05-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/43q8av4

This reminds of the fox in the henhouse!!!

Ethics in business and sleeping at night

2011-05-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Terry Iverson, CEO of Iverson & Co. shared this ethics perspective in a recent newspaper article.

"I used to sleep very well, but as I get older, I worry more about the company and the families that depend on me to "keep the ship going in the right direction." In the recent downturn, I did lose alot a sleep. Fortunately, we were able to persevere and succeed. I always teach our people to do the right thing and tell the truth. The way I run our company and train our people, I sleep very well.The lessons taught to me by my father and grandfather have proved to be invaluable."

Are you an ethical leader?

2011-05-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

Take this short reflective survey to evaluate.

1. Did I practice any virtues today?
• Was I a person who shared integrity, trustworthiness, honesty or compassion?

2. Did I do more harm than good? Or did I try to?
• Consider the short term vs. long term consequences of your actions.

3. Did I treat people with dignity and respect?
• All human beings have the right to be treated with dignity simply because they are human.

4. Was I fair and just today?
• Whom did I benefit and whom did I burden? How did I decide?

5. Was my organization better because I was in it?
• Was I better because I was part of this organization?
• Was I able to get beyond my own interests to make the organization stronger?
• Was I able to draw upon the strengths of the organization to help me become more human?

Whistleblowers, ethics and consequences

2011-05-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/3dxbp33

Great Article on the "dangers" of whistleblowing.

Leadership, ethics and values = a winning corporate combo!

2011-05-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/6awz38d

The corporate ethical culture is a top priority for business leaders. This updated study with great information, just came out. The study reaffirms the importance and vital inclusion of ethics training, ethical leadership and the relationship between ethics and business for all businesses today.

Aristotle and Moral Life

2011-04-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

Aristotle said: " The moral life is not constructed through obedience to imposed rules, but through the individual's motivation to achieve happiness and can only be developed and acquired through practice."

The Federal Law and Whistleblowers

2011-04-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122101918024118495.html

And we still can't get it right regarding the rights of whistleblowers!What is it going to take?

Situational ethics is alive and well!

2011-04-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/3ohmm8z

This CEO doesn't think he did anything wrong in the biggest bank fraud case in US history!
Unbelieveable!

"Waiting for Superman" movie

2011-04-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching this movie on public education in the USA. I was appalled, as a former educator, at the dismal state of public education in this country.The movie, statistically showed how keeping "bad" teachers due to tenure, are directly implcated for the lack of progress in educating our kids and how they are so protected by their contracts that you can't fire them. This is outrageous, and in my mind, borders on being unethical, if not down right, immoral.

Rock 'n Roll can lead to ethics!

2011-04-12T06:57:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/3jm4ose

Before my teaching career and before my professional speaking career, there was ROCK 'N ROll.

Moral living is not that tough.

2011-04-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

One of my programs contains a section that I refer to as “The Five Facts of Life.” These were originally taken from the keynote program There Are No Trailers Hitched to Hearses. Acknowledging these helped me to better prioritize and experience less stress. In that spirit I am offering them in this month’s newsletter. And they are:
Life is difficult…
and once I accepted that fact, it seemed to get less difficult. When I attended a commencement speech a few years ago the speaker made quite an impression on me with the statement “life is a bumpy road with the occasional smooth spots along the way, not the other way around.” Many of us seem to go through our days expecting life to be easy, and to mostly remain that way. When the “bumps” come our response is often to get upset, angry or super-stressed. The simple act of viewing life as a bumpy road (while reminding myself that it is probably one that I can navigate capably) helps me to respond with equanimity when troubles arise.

You are not that important…
in the grand scheme of things we really are not that important. There have been millions and millions of people who lived before us and only a small number made their way into history books. While babysitting my two year old grandson, one day I found myself pondering my own mortality and wondering “Who will remember me after him?” Then I thought, “Who cares, just as long as he remembers me!” A sense of our place in the universe, living an honorable life, and do a good job with the gifts we have been given seems a worthy pursuit-- even if we might not be destined to make the impact of a Mozart, Thomas Edison or Nelson Mandela.

You are not in control…
and yet many of us spend a lot of effort trying to be in control. How much of our lives can we actually control anyway? Can we control the weather, the traffic or what happens tomorrow? Have you ever had the experience of everything going nicely according to plan only to have some person or unexpected event come along to “mess things up”? I prefer to view each day as an opportunity for influence (preferably positive) rather than an opportunity for a wrestling match with control.

You life is not just about you…
and with a little humility we can see that none of us achieved our successes in life totally on our own. Parents, teachers, coaches, mentors—someone else helped us along the way. In that sense we stand on the shoulders of others. So a fair question is: are your shoulders strong enough for the next generation? Who will you mentor? Who will you encourage? What can you do?

And the last fact is the biggie… You are going to die…We try not to think about it, but it is a fact…
In some of my programs I offer what I call the greatest time management principal of them all. It is this: Live each day as though it is your last day and some day you’ll actually be right! This line usually gives way first to audience surprise, then laughter—but it is an easy way to keep priorities clear! Did you enjoy the sunrise this morning? Have you told those important to you how much they mean? Is there a kind word or deed you can offer today? Why wait?

Roadblocks in creating a moral compass

2011-03-31T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here are three presumptions in trying to estbalish a perosnal moral compass.

1. People are convinced that what is "right" and what they think is right are
synonymous.

2. No two people who have contradictory views can be right.

3. There must be an ideally "right or wrong" decision possible in any given situation.

"Line in the Sand" Ethics: What DO you stand for?

2011-03-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

The story of the Alamo has always captured my attention, both as a kid and as an adult. I don’t know if this fascination grew because I have been a history buff most of my life, or if it has more to do with the spell that was cast upon me as a child by the Walt Disney movies about Davy Crockett. Business and professional meetings have taken me to San Antonio many times and each trip includes a stop at the Alamo.
The story is a powerful part of Texas history, in which this year 2011, marks the 175th anniversary of the battle and fall of the Alamo.
The task of leading the Alamo defenders fell to Colonel William Barrett Travis. It is difficult to imagine the range of emotions that he experienced as a leader….specifically as he came to the awareness that they were alone in the small adobe church-turned-fort, that help was not coming and that they faced certain defeat and death. The image of Colonel Travis tracing a line in the sand with his sword and asking the defenders to cross the line of they would remain with him to fight to the end, spoke to me about leadership, courage and making difficult choices.
I use this story to illustrate that there are times and circumstances that may require us to “draw a line in the sand” or conversely we may be faced with a situation where we may be asked to “cross a line.”
While we may never be asked to respond to a request as serious as the one made by Colonel Travis, it is quite possible that at some point, we may be asked to make a choice that is quite difficult. As much as it would be ideal, we cannot count on always having the luxury of long and careful deliberation on difficult issues. A little advanced thought and planning might help if we are ever in a tight spot down the road and charged with making a difficult choice
Is there something we can do now about a possible future situation? I think so! Keep alert and periodically evaluate what is going on in your industry, department or workplace. At the same time make sure that you are familiar with your industry’s best practices and your organization’s code of ethics and conduct.
Consider, before something really serious happens, what would you do if you are asked to do something which goes against your personal code and/or your organization’s code of right and wrong. Drawing your own “line in the sand” ahead of time and keeping mindful about where you stand on difficult issues, can help to put good choices, for good reasons, on auto-pilot.
The defenders of the Alamo knew why they were there and 189 men crossed that line knowing they will never go home, see their wives and children again and still were willing to sacrifice themselves for the future of Texas.
What’s your line in the sand?

Only four moral dilemmas of humanity

2011-03-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

According to the research of Rushworth Kidder in his book, Moral Courage, there are only four dilemmas of humanity. Every single moral/ethical issue is at least one of these dilemmas.
1. Truth vs. Loyalty = honesty/integrity vs. commitment,promise-keeping

2. Individual vs. Community = "Us" vs. "them"

3. Short term vs. Long term = now vs. then and consequences for each

4. Justice vs. Mercy = fairness/equity vs. love and compassion

This about these and how they apply today at work, home and life.

Moral philosophy first, then ethics

2011-03-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

What is ethics in business without first creating a moral philosophy of business?
Any ethics training, code of ethics, etc., that does not include the development of a moral philosophy has a very weak foundation and crack WILL occur. Think about it.

A Brief Visit to my Alma Mater

2011-03-21T14:58:00.001-07:00

Early in February I was back at my Alma Mater, Benedictine University. I was asked to do a combined program for their Career Development, Alumni Relations and University Development offices, and I was truly honored to participate. Those attending included students, alumni and members of the business community. The theme was DEVELOPING YOUR EMPLOYMENT TOOLBOX. My focus for the presentation was -- degrees are important, experience is important, but my specific message was to remind participants that ethics, values and their moral compass will also play a key role in their career success.
In preparing for the program I considered those in the audience who were, or soon would be, actively involved in a job search. I wanted to offer specific ideas that could help with their search and to do that I needed help. Two friends came to mind -- both are outstanding people and highly successful CEO’s and I contacted them for their insights. The following is a condensed version of information I gathered from them. I am grateful for their time and insight, the participants in the program responded positively, and so I offer this in the newsletter to assist readers who might also be in the job search mode.
Expert # 1-- CEO in the staffing industry
• Visit each company in person and always ask to fill out an application whether there are job openings or not.
He illustrated how this advice worked for his own son…He visited a company in person. He was told by HR that there were no current job openings, but he asked if he could fill out an application anyway. While he was filling out an application a senior level executive passed by and noticed him -- one thing led to another, and he was hired. He has had an outstanding career with this employer for a number of years. Also mentioned-- at the time he was hired-- this company was the 37th one he visited in person!
• Just sending out resumes rarely produces results.
• Consider how you will fit into the environment of the company.
• You need to be unique and to present yourself well.
• Personalize your resume.
• Send a personal note of thanks to every person who interviewed you.
Expert #2 -- CEO in the tree/forestry industry
• Confidence: How do you present yourself? Everyone enjoys someone with a friendly attitude and cheerful manner….looks you in the eye and seems honestly interested in our business and listens to what we have to say.
• A desire to grow and learn. Those who want to come in and learn and grow with us are most attractive. Shows that they are trainable and will have self motivation to advance.
• Leadership experiences---it is increasingly hard to find people who have taken leadership roles, i.e. club president, team captain, etc. When you come across one of these people they really stand out.
• Passion-- are they passionate about our industry? You can’t measure this but you can feel it…for us if they are just into the trees and not people, they will have a stunted career. We are all about people and in the end (and isn’t most business) so if we hear things like “I love trees but not people” that is a red flag.
• Ability to work well with others. Have you been on teams, collaborated, and worked on a project as a group? I find that those who work well with others do the best—pretty obvious but –but sometimes hard to uncover in an interview.
And back to my input on the subject— it would be worthwhile to research the values statements, mission statements, and code of conduct /code of ethics of potential employers. Insights from employees or vendors might also prove helpful in providing an over-all picture of the integrity of an organization.

Recently a friend of mind landed what seemed to be a great job after the company that employed him for many years was sold. The new job was in his field and things looked great. When we got together a few months later I was surprised to learn that he left the new position. He told me that after only a short while it became obvious that the culture and the way he was “expected” to manage his staff was not compatible with his values and he felt he had no choice but to resign.

While it is not a guarantee, the more you can find out about the potential employer’s ethics and values the better your chances for landing and keeping a job that is going to contribute to your career success!

Who's supposed to be watching who here?

2011-03-10T05:59:00.001-08:00

Porn-watching SEC
workers disciplined,
counseled

Posted 23h 21m ago |

By P. Solomon Banda, Associated Press

DENVER — The U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission has counseled or
disciplined 24 employees who accessed
pornographic sites on government
computers between 2005 and 2010 as the
U.S. financial system teetered and almost
collapsed.

By
Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images fileThe
Securities and Exchange Commission seal on
the agency's headquarters in Washington.Enlarge

By Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images file

The Securities and Exchange Commission seal on the
agency's headquarters in Washington.

In a letter dated March 3, the SEC responded
to a Freedom of Information Act request by
Denver attorney Kevin Evans listing the
offices of the employees. They were in
Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Los
Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Fort Worth.

In addition to the federal employees, the SEC
disclosed the names of contractors whose
employees were investigated by the Office of
the Inspector General. According to the
letter, the contractors were: Labat-
Anderson, CACI International, Garda
Security, Keane Federal and ISN. Seven
employees who worked for those
contractors were investigated, but the SEC
did not release their names.

ON DEADLINE: IG report: Several top
SEC staffers surfed porn (April 2010)
The Denver Post first reported about the
letter on its online edition Tuesday. A copy
was obtained by the Associated Press.

Regional SEC Director Donald Hoerl did not
immediately return a message seeking
comment. Two of the five contractors did
not immediately return messages left by the
Associated Press.

During the court case to unseal the
documents last year, SEC human resource
director Jeffrey Risinger said that none of the

It's not just what you know but who you are!

2011-02-28T13:27:00.001-08:00

A Brief Visit to the Ivy-Covered Walls

Early in February I was back at my Alma Mater, Benedictine University. I was asked to do a combined program for their Career Development, Alumni Relations and University Development offices, and I was truly honored to participate. Those attending included students, alumni and members of the business community. The theme was DEVELOPING YOUR EMPLOYMENT TOOLBOX. My focus for the presentation was -- degrees are important, experience is important, but my specific message was to remind participants that ethics, values and their moral compass will also play a key role in their career success.

In preparing for the program I considered those in the audience who were, or soon would be, actively involved in a job search. I wanted to offer specific ideas that could help with their search and to do that I needed help. Two friends came to mind -- both are outstanding people and highly successful CEO’s and I contacted them for their insights. The following is a condensed version of information I gathered from them. I am grateful for their time and insight, the participants in the program responded positively, and so I offer this in the newsletter to assist readers who might also be in the job search mode.

Expert # 1-- CEO in the staffing industry

• Visit each company in person and always ask to fill out an application whether there are job openings or not.
He illustrated how this advice worked for his own son…He visited a company in person. He was told by HR that there were no current job openings, but he asked if he could fill out an application anyway. While he was filling out an application a senior level executive passed by and noticed him -- one thing led to another, and he was hired. He has had an outstanding career with this employer for a number of years. Also mentioned-- at the time he was hired-- this company was the 37th one he visited in person!

• Just sending out resumes rarely produces results.

• Consider how you will fit into the environment of the company.

• You need to be unique and to present yourself well.

• Personalize your resume.

• Send a personal note of thanks to every person who interviewed you.

Expert #2 -- CEO in the tree/forestry industry

• Confidence: How do you present yourself? Everyone enjoys someone with a friendly attitude and cheerful manner, looks you in the eye and seems honestly interested in our business and listens to what we have to say.

• A desire to grow and learn. Those who want to come in and learn and grow with us are most attractive. Shows that they are trainable and will have self motivation to advance.

• Leadership experiences---it is increasingly hard to find people who have taken leadership roles, i.e. club president, team captain, etc. When you come across one of these people they really stand out.

• Passion-- are they passionate about our industry? You can’t measure this but you can feel it…for us if they are just into the trees and not people, they will have a stunted career. We are all about people and in the end (and isn’t most business) so if we hear things like “I love trees but not people” that is a red flag.

• Ability to work well with others. Have you been on teams, collaborated, and worked on a project as a group? I find that those who work well with others do the best—pretty obvious but –but sometimes hard to uncover in an interview.

And back to my input on the subject— it would be worthwhile to research the values statements, mission statements, and code of conduct /code of ethics of potential employers. Insights from employees or vendors might also prove helpful in providing an over-all picture of the integrity of an organization.

Recently a friend of mind landed, what seemed to be a great job, after the company that employed him for many years was sold. The new job was in his field and things looked great. When we got together a few months later I was surprised to learn that he left the new position. He told me that after only a short while it became obvious that the culture and the way he was “expected” to manage his staff was not compatible with his values and he felt he had no choice but to resign.

While it is not a guarantee, the more you can find out about the potential employer’s ethics and values the better your chances for landing and keeping a job that is going to contribute to your career success!

Hero and villian in the same person?

2011-02-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

Are “Heroes” Entitled To Bad Behavior? Best Buy Ethics, by Kathleen Edmond.

Recently, we had a situation in a store that posed an interesting cultural challenge. The specifics of the story are not important but, suffice to say, we had an employee who was lauded as a “hero” by Best Buy and held in extremely high regard by her peers and leaders. Unfortunately, she was later implicated in a theft ring within the company and terminated along with several other employees.

The theft, it should be noted, was completely unrelated to her prior heroic deeds. It was simply a case of one employee embodying both the absolute best and worst of our company values at different points in time. The whole episode was rather disappointing, as you might imagine. Although this specific incident occurred in a store outside the U.S., the same thing could, and has, occurred in various locations across the enterprise. My questions for you:

1) Once someone attains “hero” status, can they lose that perception and the goodwill that comes with it?

2) Should a heroic employee receive a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card, so to speak, and be entitled to behave badly after the fact? Why or why not?

3) Conversely, should heroes be held to a higher ethical standard going forward than “normal” people? Please explain.

4) Have you ever observed a similar situation where you work? If so, how did your workplace culture respond? Did the culture grant him/her a Get Out Of Jail Free pass or go the other direction and offer less grace than would normally be expected?

So ethically, who's right here?

2011-02-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

http://tinyurl.com/4ju6uzt

Excellence, Accountability and Leadership

2011-01-28T08:46:00.000-08:00

I teach a college class that meets one day a week. With my original roots in education, I am having a great time being back in the classroom, if only on a limited basis…

That is probably why the buzz surrounding the new book “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses” by Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa at the University of Virginia caught my attention, especially since it happened to coincide with the start of another semester. As described in the New York Times article, “How Much Do College Students Learn, and Study?” By Jaques Steinberg, (www.nytimes.com)-- “In the book, and in an accompanying study being released Tuesday, the authors followed more than 2,300 undergraduates at two dozen universities, and concluded that 45% ‘demonstrated no significant gains in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and written communications during the first two years of college’.”

No significant gains….that can’t be good.
When I read the article, a few things came to mind. The first -- if I were paying college tuition “no significant gains” would not be a comforting thought! And then I remembered a comment that was made when I was briefed before the start of the first college class I was preparing to teach over a year ago. “They really won’t read much.” Which, correctly or incorrectly I took to mean --so don’t assign them much reading; they won’t do it.

There might be something to that comment because also in the above mentioned article was this quote from the book. “…they found that 32 percent of the students whom they followed did not, in a typical semester, take ‘any courses with more than 40 pages of reading per week’ and that 50 percent ‘did not take a single course in which they wrote more than 20 pages over the course of the semester.’ ”

In fact the students in my first class last year did read and they did write. It took a while for a few of them to realize that reading was an important part of a class on ethics. The wealth of information available and the theory and history of ethics requires a fair amount of reading just to gain a passing acquaintance with the subject. And then there was that business sense of mine which would not allow me to deliver to them anything less than the full value for their tuition dollars.

Not one student (in anonymous exit evaluations submitted after grades were already recorded) made a comment that the material was too difficult or the reading too demanding.

In the role of teacher, I am finding that the questions about what I demand of myself and my students are very similar to the questions we ask in business: Is there moral obligation to deliver an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay? Am I delivering to the customer/student the full value for what they were charged for their product, their service or their class?

Are accountability and excellence less important for students and instructors in education today than for businesses or other sectors today?
I think that the following questions are fair questions, no matter if we are talking about business, industry, healthcare, education or government:
• Do I demand excellence of myself? Do I think excellence is a realistic expectation for others?
• Is there a moral obligation associated with my work?
• As a leader do I have an obligation to do my best to create an environment where each person feels included and empowered?
• Does my behavior convey that I place importance on accountability and responsibility?

Excellence—you know it when you see it!

Every December parents and grandparents are treated to the annual ritual of the primary school holiday music program. With two granddaughters in public grade school in another state, my wife volunteered, this past holiday season, to make a mid-week trip to attend their program. She is a music lover, and encouraged our own kids (trumpet, piano, and viola lessons) and now the grandkids, to value music and music education.

She noted that there was a particularly beautiful choral piece performed by the 5th grade choir. The choir director provided a little background on the music, the composer and then mentioned to the audience that it was a “very difficult piece.” At the conclusion of the selection the room was initially quiet, she related “and then the wave of a standing ovation overtook the gym turned concert hall.” The “difficult” piece had been performed flawlessly!

I could not help but reflect when my wife and I discussed the concert after she returned home, that at the heart of this was one music teacher, a leader who clearly believed in excellence, believed that she was accountable to herself and her students to offer her best, and believed that together she and her students were capable of mastering that “very difficult piece” and so much more.

Then I thought of the Greek proverb….WHAT IS GOOD TO KNOW IS DIFFICULT TO LEARN. I think I am going to include that proverb in the college course I am teaching this semester.

Moral or Immoral?

2011-01-27T07:02:00.000-08:00

"To be immoral is to be indifferent. We always have a choice to stand up for is right(moral)or to do nothing(immoral). Whatever you do in life,think higher and feel deeper." Elie Wiesel

Test of Conscience

2011-01-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

"The ultimate test of a man's conscience may be his willingess to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard."--Gaylord Nelson

Tragedies in Life

2011-01-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

"The tragedies of this world do not reflect God's Will. They result from the laws of nature and from the misuse of our human freedom.God does not send tragedy!He sends the strength to cope with tragedy and He sends us friends to assure us that we do not grieve or cry alone." Rabbi Harold Kushner

Gives us all something to think about, especially this week.

A lesson in moral leadership

2011-01-06T07:19:00.000-08:00

Socrates and Plato, both taught that knowledge and virtue are one in this these ways:
• If one knows what is right, then one will do what is right.
• Virtue is a kind of knowledge in that they are deeply ingrained habits that guide one’s action.
• The goal of the moral life is to cultivate the very best character one can.

If we use this as a “gauge” for leadership today, what would this tell us? I would suggest that by in large leaders don’t examine deeply enough the moral dimension of their actions or their decisions. Too much other stuff gets in the way, be it, CYA for your job, placating shareholders, wanting to be re-elected, morals are not on one’s radar or the belief that morals have nothing to do with business. All are dangerous and people can see the effect of lack of moral leadership.
1. Do leaders really know what is right? According to whom? For what reason? And for what result? Leaders need to take time to discern their own morals and how they bring them to the workplace and why.

2. What are the leaders’ deeply ingrained habits? How ingrained? Positive or negative? The only way to judge is to observe the leader’s actions and their effect on the people around them. These habits need become “second nature” so that the leader doesn’t even have to think about them, it is an automatic consideration and integral part of one’s decision making.

3. If the goal of the moral life is to cultivate character, what are the keys to character development? It seems to me that character is built on three concepts:
a. Who you are: the virtues you have acquired, especially honesty and integrity.
b. What you represent: your ability to recognize moral issues and choose the “good.”
c. How you act when no one is watching: the degree of moral internalization.
I am reminded of an example in my own parenting that was truly a “test”
of my own character and gave me the insights I listed above.

When my son has a freshman in high school, one day he was late coming home, so I periodically would look out the window to see if I could see him walking down the street. Finally I saw him coming, but he was ripping the plastic cover of what looked like a CD and then threw it down the sewer and put the Cd in his backpack and proceeded to walk home.
When he got in the house, I asked what it was he tossed down the sewer? He was stunned and gave some ridiculous answer. Then I asked him to empty his backpack and sure enough there was a brand new CD, he had just stolen from Walmart. I, immediately, put him in the car, drove to Walmart, asked to see the manager and explained what had just happened in the last 45 minutes. The manager took me aside and asked me what I would like to happen. I told him in front of my son, to do with him what you do with anyone who is caught shoplifting. The manager, somewhat stunned my unwavering support of his position and that a parent would actually take the time to bring a child to justice,

lectured my son for awhile, and then told him that has was not going to call the police this time, and that my son has banned from the Walmart for the next year.
He told my son that all employees would be notified as to who he is, and what he had done and if my son showed up at the Walmart, the police would be called and charges made.
Needless to say, my son was embarrassed, angry at me for making him go to the Walmart to “fess up” and it put a strain on our relationship for some time to come. But as a parent, the realities of what is right and wrong, goes to very being of modeling character. If my son had any doubt as to what I stood for, he had no doubt now and that I was more than willing to immediately act on such behavior.
I can only hope that that experience has resonated in his life by the way he behaves and now raises his own son.

Worry is useless!

2011-01-05T07:29:00.001-08:00

“Worrying is like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do, but doesn’t get you anywhere.” Unknown

What a Price to Pay!!

2010-12-22T09:48:00.000-08:00

http://tinyurl.com/3xt3o66
The lesson here is to go slow and choose well as you don't always know what price you will price in the long run for your choices.

What would you do?

2010-12-21T18:46:00.000-08:00

As a police commissioner once said when he turned down the twentieth bribe offer he had received that day, “Ethics ain’t easy!” All of us are faced by those moments when doing what’s right is very different from doing what’s easy or what would be the most profitable. That’s one of the reasons for a company to have a mission statement or a code of conduct: so that employees understand what’s expected of them when they’re faced with the choice between right versus easy, ethical versus profitable.

The problem is that so many choices fall into the gray area in between! What do you do when making the ethical choice will almost certainly hurt someone? What if doing something a little bit wrong will help create a very large “right”? Take a few moments to read the examples below and answer the questions they pose, and you’ll see what I mean.

• Your co-worker asks you to cover for him so he can sneak out of work early to go to his son’s softball game. Do you agree? If he went anyway, would you keep silent?
• You’re about ready to sign a big new client to a contract worth over $50,000. Your boss is under a lot of pressure to increase sales. He calls you into his office and tells you his job is on the line, and he asks you to include the revenue for your contract in the sales figures for the quarter that ends tomorrow. You know the contract is a sure thing but the client is out of town and cannot possibly sign by tomorrow. What do you do?
• The manufacturing cost of the widgets your company makes has dropped by 50%. One of your customers, Sam, tells you he knows this because he is best friends with your company’s VP of production, and asks you for a discount on his order. Your boss okays the discount. Your other customer, Sue (who is one of your best friends and knows nothing about the drop in manufacturing costs) places the exact same order for widgets as Sam. Do you offer her a similar discount? Do you tell her about the drop in manufacturing costs?
• Company policy forbids co-workers to become romantically involved. You go to the same church as someone from another department, and you find yourself becoming attracted to this person. Do you pursue the relationship?
• Your best friend is the VP of one of the companies with which your firm does business. You take her out for lunch just to catch up on personal stuff, and you pick up the check. Do you declare this a “business lunch” and submit the receipt for reimbursement?
• While in the restroom, you overhear your boss telling a colleague that Bob is going to be laid off at the end of the quarter, in about two weeks’ time. Bob is a good friend of yours. Do you tell him?
• One of the newest salespeople in your division is a real goof-off, never showing up for work on time, distracting other people with his antics and so on. You complain about him to your boss, who tells you the kid is the son of the company president. Your boss instructs you not only to leave the new guy alone but also to make his sales numbers look good by throwing him some no-brainer accounts. What do you do?

Now, just in case you’re feeling very virtuous because you know you’d always make the ethical choice in those cases, ask yourself:
Have you ever
. . . lied to your mother? your boss? the IRS?
. . . lied so you wouldn’t hurt someone’s feelings?
. . . lied to get out of a business or social engagement?
. . . taken a questionable deduction on your income tax?
. . . fudged figures on a report to make the results look better?
. . . taken a sick day when you weren’t sick?
. . . lied to a customer (“we sent your order yesterday”) or creditor (“the check’s in the mail”)?
. . . cut corners on quality control?
. . . blamed someone else for something you knew you were partly responsible for?
. . . used any of these phrases: “Everybody does it,” “It’s the lesser of two evils,” “It’s only a little white lie,” “It doesn’t hurt anyone,” “Who will know?”
. . . put inappropriate pressure on others?

In the real world, ethics ain’t easy. Somehow we need to come up with a way of looking at even the most complicated situations and evaluating them with an eye to what’s right—not what will cause the least trouble. We need a basis upon which to build the kind of success that feels good because we know what we’re doing represents us at our best.

Steps to making an ethical decision

2010-12-17T06:01:00.001-08:00

We all make decisions constantly. We decide what to wear, what to eat, whether to answer the phone, which route to take to work, and so on. We’re used to making decisions. But the really tough decisions are those where there’s right and wrong on both sides, or where our decisions may cause pain to another individual or to ourselves. It’s important, first, to understand just how we make decisions, and second, to have a method of evaluating things so we can make the tough choices with a clearer mind and easier heart.
So, how do we make decisions? Jean Piaget, a Swiss child psychologist, studied the ways children make decisions, and constructed a theory of what he called the “stages of moral development.” Later a gentleman named Lawrence Kolberg elaborated on Piaget’s theory and applied it to adults as well. This work states that, as we go through life, our decisions are based upon different factors, arranged in a hierarchy. The first way we’re motivated to make a decision is through the threat of punishment. That’s how a lot of us were raised growing up: “If you don’t clean your room, you can’t go to the party.” Punishment deals with fear and external motivation—not a very high place from which to make a decision. The second way we’re motivated is with reward. “If you clean your room, I’ll buy you that jacket you want.” This is how we turn our kids into capitalists. Reward is great motivation, but unless you want to be held hostage by constant demands, it’s not effective. If your kids or any of your employees ask you, “If I do that what will you give me?” you know they’re motivated only by reward.
The concept of good and bad is number three. You’re a good employee if you do this, a bad employee if you do that. However, the terms “good” and “bad” are relative; they mean the person doing the speaking is making a value judgment. If I call my employee “good,” what I’m really saying is, “You did what I wanted you to do.” But does that necessarily mean that the employee (or the customer) sees it in the exact same way? No. He or she could be saying inside, “Boy, that was a stupid way to get that done,” or “Gee, that wasn’t the kind of service I wanted.”
The fourth way to motivate us to make decisions is through rules and regulations. Did you ever hear your parents say, “As long as you live in this house, you’ll do the dishes” or “take out the garbage” or some other list of chores? Every business also has rules and regulations for its employees’ behavior. We all have to live with rules and regulations. However, what’s directing our choices in all of these cases—punishment, reward, good and bad, rules and regulations? External forces. We’re deciding based upon what other people are telling us, not what we’re telling ourselves.
That influence changes when we hit the fifth level of decisions: choice and commitment. As you grew up, you began to make more and more choices for yourself, right? You chose the courses you took in school, whether to go to college, what you majored in, where to live, who to date. You chose and then committed to that choice. Whether it’s the kind of peanut butter you buy or the job you take, choice and commitment form the basis of most adult decisions—which leads to the sixth level of decisions, internalization. You become what your choices have made you. You are a doctor, or a cop, or a secretary. You’re married or single. And the great thing is, you can continue to evolve based upon your choices every minute. None of us are truly stuck in what we are because we’re constantly evolving, constantly becoming something different and hopefully better. Becoming is the essence of living—you only stop becoming when they put dirt on your face. We need to be operating from the highest possible level of decision making, where we have internalized the ethics and values that are important to us and we allow ourselves to evolve as human beings, managers, workers, parents, spouses, children.
These stages of development are extremely useful when we examine our decisions from an ethical perspective. The first step is to identify your own level of decision making. It’s an important question, because you cannot lead people beyond where you are. The goal is for you and your associates to make decisions based upon choice and commitment and internalization. You want to choose and commit to the values of your company, and internalize those values so completely that there is no question about the appropriate response in any situation.
How can you tell where you or your associates are on this scale? If someone is working on levels one through four, they will use the phrase, “What do I have to do?” If they’re operating on levels five and six, they will be using the phrase, “What can I do?” Your people will tell you where they are. It’s your job to empower them to move to a different stage, to a different level of relating.
Here are what are called the Ten Steps to Ethical Decision Making. You can use them as your guide for examining all the possible options in a situation. Go through each step in order, and make sure you do this process on paper. Writing your answers can be very helpful when you’re in an emotional state about a particular decision. The writing process directs your emotions through the pen or the pencil onto the paper, not at another human being!

1. Identify exactly what the problem is.
Where’s the dilemma? Where does it stem from? Who is involved in it? Write down everything that’s part of the problem.

2. Identify the goal.
What’s your goal in solving this problem? What do you want to happen? Is your goal total customer satisfaction? Peace in the workplace? Your kids’ happiness and success? Whatever it is, write down the goal.

3. Brainstorm as many alternative solutions as you can.
Don’t think logically, and don’t let practicality get in your way. Just list as many solutions for this situation as you possibly can. You can always get rid of impractical ideas later. But unless you have a wide variety of alternative solutions to examine, you can’t really get clear on exactly where you want to go.

4. List the facts—what you know, and what you don’t know.
What do you know about this situation? Equally important, write down anything you don’t know and need to find out before you can make a decision. This may entail asking other people, other companies, other entities for their input, so you can have all the information you need to make the best possible choice.

5. Identify the people who will be affected by this decision and the principles involved.
Who in your company will be affected by this decision? Which of your customers? Who in your family and/or your community? List every person and entity affected. Then make a second list of the principles involved in the decision. On what basis is this decision being made? Is it the company’s mission statement? The value statement? Your personal code of ethics? Customer satisfaction? The bottom line? What are the key values and principles involved in making this decision?

6. Lists the risks and the benefits of each solution.
For each solution, write down the risks inherent in using this particular option. What are the possible costs to you, your co-workers, your company? Next to the risks, list the benefits for each solution as well. Be thorough; make sure you list as many risks and benefits as you can for each possible solution.

7. List the importance of each solution and the likelihood it will happen.
How important to you, your company, or your community, is the choice that will be made? And looking at each alternative solution, what are the chances that it will come to pass? What is the chance you will lose the customer? What is the chance this solution will cause your company to downsize and people will lose their jobs as a result? What is the chance the market will shift? Weigh each solution carefully. What’s the importance of the choice, and what are the chances it will happen?

8. List your motives for choosing each solution.
From your perspective as CEO, sales manager, head of sales, parent, friend—whatever the case might be—what would be your reasons for choosing this particular option? List your motives for each solution you’ve created.

9. List your priorities and preferences.
If you had your way, how would you like this whole thing to work out? What’s your priority when it comes to this decision?

10. Now, looking at your answers to #1–9, make the decision.
Keeping everything you’ve written in mind, make the decision that seems to suit the needs of the situation. Give it your very best shot—after all, our best is the best we can do.

Following these ten steps helps us to use reason more than emotion when it comes to the tough moments in our lives. The chances of making a better decision after some clear reflection are much, much higher.

Ethics for Salespeople

2010-12-15T07:27:00.001-08:00

Who is the main connection between the company and the customer? The salesperson! A company’s ethics and integrity is based on the relationship between the salesperson and the customer. If you’re in sales, you’re the most important person in the company as far as your customers are concerned. You, most of all, have to “walk the talk” of ethical success.
When you take the high road to success, your goal is to build relationships that will last—and those are the relationships which pay off enormously in the long run. When your customers know they can trust you to be honest, to give them a fair deal, to listen to their concerns and deal equitably with them, they will stay with you throughout the ups and downs. They will become the loyal customers every salesperson seeks.
So, how do you build or maintain an ethical foundation that will make a lifelong customer? There are several questions you should ask whenever you interact with your clients.

1. Does your decision affect anyone else besides you and your bottom line?
Too many salespeople seem to live by the question, “What’s in it for me?” But is that the most important question to ask if you’re committed to building long-term relationships with your customers? The best decisions are customer-focused first. If a salesperson induces customers to load up on products during a promotion period when he or she knows it’s not in the customers’ best interests, it’s a type of cheating that can adversely affect the relationship. You must consider the effect your decisions will have on the company, the customer and on your own integrity.
What is good for the customer must always supersede what’s good for you. Ask yourself, “Will the greater good be for me or my customers?” And if you benefit a lot more than your customers, you’d better take another look at that course of action, for the degree you give is the degree you get.

2. Are you making sales or making customers?
Salespeople with short-term mentality focus on making the sale. Smart salespeople focus on creating customers who will come back again and again. When you “make” a customer, you have begun the process of establishing trust, the building block of any relationship. People won’t buy from people/companies they don’t trust. Conversely, once you’ve established that relationship of trust with your customers, they will stay with you through thick and thin. And the more loyal your customers are, the better your bottom line.

3. Are ethics and service intertwined? Are you filling your customers’ needs in an ethical manner?
Going the extra mile for your customers establishes a “value-added” attitude that will build trust, alleviate worry, and become the basis for other business. Prove how valuable each customer is to you by being honest, customer focused, and truly committed to helping meet or exceed your customers’ needs. This should be your goal in developing business.
Remember, if you help customers fulfill their needs, they will come back to you with their wants. How are needs fulfilled? By doing what you can to meet your customers’ timelines, requirements and expectations in an enthusiastic and ethical manner.

4. What is the PTP factor—the Price To Pay?
Whatever you do and in whatever you decide, you must always keep in mind the PTP. What is the Price to Pay for what you want to do? What will be the effect of your decision? Do you really want the sale at any cost? At the cost of your company’s integrity, or your own? At the cost of your reputation? If you can’t pay the price, then you need to walk away, or take some other action.
How can you tell if a decision is right or wrong? Just ask yourself this question: “Would I want my family and friends to know what I have done?” The decision that we make in hopes that no one finds out is usually wrong!

Here’s the easiest way to keep yourself on the high road to success: Always do what’s in the best interest of your customer, because it will always come back to you. Make goodwill an active part of your business plan. Ask yourself, “What can I do for this customer so he or she will want to cooperate with me?” Your emphasis must go into relationship building, not into the sale of just products or services. Your customers will want to do business with you long-term if you make them feel good and if they believe you can be trusted to give the very best advice, service and product. Create customers, not sales. Build relationships first—and the sales will follow naturally!

Ethics and the Generations in the workplace.

2010-12-14T12:33:00.001-08:00

Generational Ethics - By: BISS

'Boomer' Rick cannot perceive why 'Gen Xer' Jim cannot seem to get to work on time. 'Millennial' Stacy will not seem to understand why 'Traditionalist' Fred has worked at this company for 40 years although, clearly, he is unhappy.
Statistics tell us that there are four generations in our workforce today. Abundant analysis focuses on the variations and how to best work with and manage the varying degrees of experience, viewpoints and work styles. I surprise how the blending of these very totally different experiences contributes to the ethical culture in firms today.
To clarify, the generations we tend to are talking regarding are described within the article "New-age challenge: Four generations now occupy the workplace" by James Amos, Pueblo Chieftain, The (CO) three/7/10 carries with it: ten% Traditionalists (born 1900-1945) 45% Boomers (born1946-1964) thirty% Gen. X (born 1965-1980) 15% Millenials (born 1981-2000)
The problem is that once we hear the word 'ethics' we assume it suggests that the same factor to everyone. But, there is some gray area here, notably when it involves four completely different generations. What's moral behavior for a Millennial may be considered highly unethical to a Traditionalist, Boomer or even a Gen X'er. Thus who is true? Which generation is additional ethical? The solution might surprise you!
The Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers wrote the book, "Making Smart: How Young Folks Address Moral Dilemmas at Work," (Harvard University Press 2004) on the "ethical conflicts faced by generations in the beginning of their career ladder." In this book, the young professionals who were surveyed recounted the pressures of participating in unethical conduct, i.e. prematurely publishing data or sensationalizing news stories, for assumed advance in their profession. Would a Boomer create the identical selections?
So which generation is a lot of moral?
Joe Smith at Company 123 features a daughter who is collaborating in 'the large game' at 4pm on a weekday. Traditionalists' tendency is to stick to their work regimen, as invariably, regardless of personal/family activities, not because they are heartless however as a result of they view hard work and a strict regime as sacred values. Boomers, whose generational values embody 'Workaholism' concentrate on the competition at work and might focus on what he/she may be missing as productive time at work, rather than personal time, significantly throughout weekday work hours.
Gen Xers, conversely, hold work/life balance as a great benefit at work. They also know they'll check email via their phone at the large game, and not miss a beat at work. Millenials understand that their physical presence at work does not equate their ability to urge the work done. They are thus tech savvy that not only can they check email, but they can simply stay connected to the office/shoppers while at the sport and follow up at home, post game. Millenials, thanks to growing up with technology, will multi task seamlessly at a completely new level.
So...who is a lot of ethical? The generations who stay at work until 5pm or later? Or are people who place price on important family events more ethical?
The answer? It depends.
The answer depends on what expectations were communicated to each employee in the beginning.
Any ethics training program in any company that has completely different generations MUST have the subsequent 3 components in any ethics training program.
1. Acknowledgment of different generational viewpoints. Do you recognize what share of every generation is in your workplace? There are various resources on the market at no cost, that explore the most effective tactics to manage each generation. Every age cluster requires a little bit of a completely different approach to be most effective. Once you know who is in your 'audience' you'll be able to perceive the varying views of what sort of behavior is ethical and what is not. Usually times, seemingly unethical behavior isn't conducted on purpose...at times, it's just that a member of a certain generation holds beliefs based on their experiences, and which will be completely different from what your organization advocates.
2. Define ethics. Walk staff through situations pertinent to their job and help them appropriately analyze the situation. Give them the tools, not just definition. A community faculty mandates that each one workers must take online training courses prior to hire date. This coaching program included examples regarding keeping grades personal, applicable and inappropriate relationships with co workers, also who is and is not allowed to view their personnel file. These situations are terribly specific to the staff at this community college. The school outlined ethics in their culture for all employees.
3. Offer ongoing messaging that communicates expectations. Marketing research states that a consumer would wish to see the product seven times before they recognize it. Why should ethics coaching be any completely different? Whether or not it is every alternative month, can you commit to six times a year, dedicated to ethics messaging? Additional importantly, training ought to be sensitive to any or all generations.
By following these 3 suggestions, you may realize that bound ethics sticking points could not be as a lot of of a problem anymore. If you fully perceive the generational differences that your workers bring to the workplace, and embrace this data in your ongoing ethics training, you'll be in an exceedingly higher position to own all generations focused on the same moral path.

'Boomer' Rick cannot perceive why 'Gen Xer' Jim cannot seem to get to work on time. 'Millennial' Stacy will not seem to understand why 'Traditionalist' Fred has worked at this company for 40 years although, clearly, he is unhappy.

Jeff Patterson has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Ethics, you can also check out his latest website about Lane Office Chair Which reviews and lists the best Leather Recliner Chairs

Ethical reflections

2010-12-13T09:56:00.001-08:00

How do we analyze the rightness or wrongness in a situation? In his book, Working Ethics, Marvin Brown offers four questions of ethical reflection. Whenever you find yourself in an ambiguous situation, use these questions to help you get clear.

1. What should I do?
All practical considerations aside, what should you and your company do if you evaluate strictly on the ethics of the situation? For example, your best customer is threatening to walk unless you give him a discount and promise not to tell any of your other customers you have done so. If the customer weren’t an important account, would you give in to this blackmail? Look to the policies of the company for guidance. (Hopefully, your company has a clear mission statement and list of values for you to use.)

2. What do I know?
Based upon your observations, what do you know about this situation? Often what may seem to be a morally ambiguous situation is simply a misunderstanding or a projection of someone else’s fears and desires. You want to separate the truth from rumor, conjecture, wishful thinking—everything that might be biased or false. For example, someone tells you that your best friend Mary is dating a co-worker, violating the company policy on personal relationships at work. Mary’s never said anything to you, nor has her behavior toward this co-worker changed one bit, as far as you’ve seen. The first thing you must do is to ascertain the truth by asking Mary about the relationship (preferably, while you’re both away from the office).

3. What does it mean?
Behavior by itself is just behavior; it means nothing unless we put a value judgment on it based on our own personal values. Mary may indeed be dating her co-worker. Say you ask her about it, and she tells you they met at a church function, outside the work context. They’re both careful not to bring the relationship to the office, she says, but neither of them can afford to change jobs right now. What does the behavior mean, according to your values? I would suggest that before you judge the behavior, you ask yourself, “Is this judgment humane?” You might also want to remember the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated.

4. Why do I believe it means that?
What’s the basic assumption underlying your judgment? And is that assumption responsive or appropriate to this particular situation? You may believe that Mary is lying to the company by concealing her relationship, and feel strongly that lying in any context is wrong. But underlying the entire conversation is your assumption that Mary’s lying is any of your business. As a friend, you can advise her to either break it off or find another job. But unless you’re Mary’s boss (or her boyfriend’s boss), it probably isn’t appropriate for you to take any action.

As you can see, these four questions of ethical reflection can come in handy when you’re faced with situations where “right” and “wrong” are a little unclear, or where there are many different courses of action open to you. Use these questions to help clarify your own thoughts and feelings, and to make sure that your ultimate actions will be in alignment with your true values.

What about your Conscience?

2010-12-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the Disney movie classic, Pinocchio? In that movie Jiminy Cricket served as Pinocchio’s conscience. He was always around to remind Pinocchio about the right thing to do. Sometimes Pinocchio ignored him, sometimes he listened to him; but Jiminy Cricket stayed by Pinocchio’s side no matter what. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone like that in today’s business climate—someone outside ourselves who knows exactly what to do and is willing to stick by us no matter what, keeping us on the high road to success?
An under utilized and valued concept that needs to be strongly emphasized is the concept of conscience. Where does conscience fit into one's decision-making and what are one's obligations to conscience in discerning what's right or wrong?
Conscience, according to Thomas Aquinas, one of the most profound thinkers/philosophers/ theologians of the Middle ages, defines conscience as "the application of knowledge to activity (Summa Theologiae,I-II). He goes on to explain: "Conscience is the act of determining that which I ought to do or not do, or that I was right or wrong in performing that action." This issue here is what is the process by which one determines whether one is using conscience appropriately? Aquinas reflects that in order to use conscience effectively, because Aquinas believed that one obliged to always follow one's conscience,
one must insure that conscience is well informed and objectively educated. It is then and only then one morally obligated to act on it. There lies the crux of decision-making! Making a decision on the solely on emotions, subjective reasoning or rationalization is not an ethical way to make decisions. Time and effort must go into being well informed and being able to understand opposing viewpoints, in order to more objectively make the best decision. Therefore, making an ethical choice cannot be done in the "spur of the moment". This decision calls for introspection, information and application.
Your values, your code of ethics and the internalization of the same are the basis for the development of conscience. It is important that you internalized in advance what your values are, keeping in mind, much will be dependent on the situation. Not that that each situation will determine the ethics needed to make the decision, but rather it's the challenge of applying one's values and code of ethics differently depending on the variables of the situation. The process is not one of finding values to fit the situation, but rather how do my values relate to each particular situation?
Once you’ve created your own personal code of conduct, the next step is to internalize these ethics and values, making them a natural part of your decision-making process. Ethics are what you do even when nobody is looking. Therefore, ethics have to come from the inside out, not from the outside in. When you internalize your code—when principles like honesty, decency, and looking out for the other guy form the basis of your daily decisions and actions—then you can make the tough choices with more confidence.
Because I’m not going to kid you: even when you have a clear code of ethics to guide you, the tough choices aren’t any less difficult; they’re just clearer. Often the “right” course is simply the one that will cause less damage in the long term.
The ethical choice may mean you refuse to support your boss in fudging figures on a report, for example. In the short term this might cause a rift between you and your boss, perhaps even make you both look bad to company management. But in the long term your credibility (as well as your boss’s integrity) will be less damaged by telling the truth than by lying and possibly getting caught.
Once we have internalized our personal code of conduct, then comes the hard part: we must choose to abide by those ethics and values in each situation that arises. Remember, ethics are honesty not just in principle but in action. We each have to choose to take the ethical action in every context, and ideally our code of conduct is always an integral part of that decision-making process.
This doesn’t mean you need to be rigid in your interpretation of your ethics and values. You can stay true to the essence of your code of conduct while being flexible in its application. The Constitution of the United States is a great example of this principle in action. The Constitution is the essence of our law, but how it is applied or amended can vary depending upon circumstances and requirements. In the same way, we each need to abide by the essence of our own code of conduct (and if our business has a mission statement or code of its own, to abide by that). At the same time, we must be open to the fact that our values are not absolute and may need, at times, to be reevaluated and adapted.
We must choose well which path we follow on the high road to success. We need to analyze our values and ethics, apply them in a consistent yet compassionate manner, and make sure our workplace values and personal values are not in conflict. We must make sure our values are not situational—that is, we have one set of rules for our work and another for our kids or our relationships. That kind of “moral schizophrenia” can only make our choices more difficult, not less. Like the Constitution, if our code of conduct is something we believe in then we should hold onto it, apply it even-handedly, change it slowly, after much deliberation, and recognize that it will ultimately define who we are because it controls what we do.

2010-12-10T09:26:00.001-08:00

What About Your Conscience?

Do you remember the Disney movie classic, Pinocchio? In that movie Jiminy Cricket served as Pinocchio’s conscience. He was always around to remind Pinocchio about the right thing to do. Sometimes Pinocchio ignored him, sometimes he listened to him; but Jiminy Cricket stayed by Pinocchio’s side no matter what. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone like that in today’s business climate—someone outside ourselves who knows exactly what to do and is willing to stick by us no matter what, keeping us on the high road to success?
An under utilized and valued concept that needs to be strongly emphasized is the concept of conscience. Where does conscience fit into one's decision-making and what are one's obligations to conscience in discerning what's right or wrong?
Conscience, according to Thomas Aquinas, one of the most profound thinkers/philosophers/ theologians of the Middle ages, defines conscience as "the application of knowledge to activity (Summa Theologiae,I-II). He goes on to explain: "Conscience is the act of determining that which I ought to do or not do, or that I was right or wrong in performing that action." This issue here is what is the process by which one determines whether one is using conscience appropriately? Aquinas reflects that in order to use conscience effectively, because Aquinas believed that one obliged to always follow one's conscience,
one must insure that conscience is well informed and objectively educated. It is then and only then one morally obligated to act on it. There lies the crux of decision-making! Making a decision on the solely on emotions, subjective reasoning or rationalization is not an ethical way to make decisions. Time and effort must go into being well informed and being able to understand opposing viewpoints, in order to more objectively make the best decision. Therefore, making an ethical choice cannot be done in the "spur of the moment". This decision calls for introspection, information and application.
Your values, your code of ethics and the internalization of the same are the basis for the development of conscience. It is important that you internalized in advance what your values are, keeping in mind, much will be dependent on the situation. Not that that each situation will determine the ethics needed to make the decision, but rather it's the challenge of applying one's values and code of ethics differently depending on the variables of the situation. The process is not one of finding values to fit the situation, but rather how do my values relate to each particular situation?
Once you’ve created your own personal code of conduct, the next step is to internalize these ethics and values, making them a natural part of your decision-making process. Ethics are what you do even when nobody is looking. Therefore, ethics have to come from the inside out, not from the outside in. When you internalize your code—when principles like honesty, decency, and looking out for the other guy form the basis of your daily decisions and actions—then you can make the tough choices with more confidence.
Because I’m not going to kid you: even when you have a clear code of ethics to guide you, the tough choices aren’t any less difficult; they’re just clearer. Often the “right” course is simply the one that will cause less damage in the long term.
The ethical choice may mean you refuse to support your boss in fudging figures on a report, for example. In the short term this might cause a rift between you and your boss, perhaps even make you both look bad to company management. But in the long term your credibility (as well as your boss’s integrity) will be less damaged by telling the truth than by lying and possibly getting caught.
Once we have internalized our personal code of conduct, then comes the hard part: we must choose to abide by those ethics and values in each situation that arises. Remember, ethics are honesty not just in principle but in action. We each have to choose to take the ethical action in every context, and ideally our code of conduct is always an integral part of that decision-making process.
This doesn’t mean you need to be rigid in your interpretation of your ethics and values. You can stay true to the essence of your code of conduct while being flexible in its application. The Constitution of the United States is a great example of this principle in action. The Constitution is the essence of our law, but how it is applied or amended can vary depending upon circumstances and requirements. In the same way, we each need to abide by the essence of our own code of conduct (and if our business has a mission statement or code of its own, to abide by that). At the same time, we must be open to the fact that our values are not absolute and may need, at times, to be reevaluated and adapted.
We must choose well which path we follow on the high road to success. We need to analyze our values and ethics, apply them in a consistent yet compassionate manner, and make sure our workplace values and personal values are not in conflict. We must make sure our values are not situational—that is, we have one set of rules for our work and another for our kids or our relationships. That kind of “moral schizophrenia” can only make our choices more difficult, not less. Like the Constitution, if our code of conduct is something we believe in then we should hold onto it, apply it even-handedly, change it slowly, after much deliberation, and recognize that it will ultimately define who we are because it controls what we do.

Develop a Road Map to High Road Behavior

2010-12-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

When we’re faced with those ambiguous choices where the “right” path is unclear or will produce some painful consequences, where do we turn? If our company has a code of conduct or mission statement, we can look at that and ask, “If I am living up to this credo, what will I do?” But first and foremost, we must turn to our own code of conduct, the values and ethics we regard as important to us personally.
These values are always based upon what we’ve observed and learned, either at home or school or through a role model at work. After all, we aren’t born knowing how to behave ethically—nobody in the delivery room gives us a Code of Ethical Behavior! We all have to learn how to act ethically. And through the years, we assemble a hodgepodge of values and ethics based upon the sum total of all that has gone before us in our lives—all the people, experiences, relationships, etc., that have contributed to the development of our value system. Whether the influences were religious, ethnic, political, or cultural, they play a key role in the development of who we are as individuals.
The journey of life has instilled in us a variety of perceptions, attitudes, values and insights. If that journey has been one of positive influence, we must stay true to it. If our journey has had some negative influences, however, we may need to check our values to make sure they are leading us along the high road. Unfortunately, not every influence in our lives points us in the right direction. Once I caught a kid cheating on the final exam for the ethics course I was teaching. (Cheating on an ethics exam—that should tell you something right off.) The kid and his father came into my office, and when I showed them the kid’s cheat sheet, the father was visibly upset. For at least five minutes he berated his son, “How dare you cheat? How dare you cheapen your dignity?” Finally, feeling pushed against the wall emotionally, the kid screamed, “What’s the difference between me cheating on this test and you doctoring your income tax for the last five years?”
I believe values are caught, not taught—that is, how people behave and the decisions they make speak much louder than anything they may say. So we may have been taught the Golden Rule, but if our parents and teachers lived more by the rule, “Every man for himself,” which rule do you think would have more impact on our lives?
Luckily, we are not forced to live by the values we’ve been taught, if those values lead us away from the high road to success. We are free to choose our own values. We are in control of our own values and rules, and we must build our own ethical code of conduct, our road map for the high road to success.
How do we do that? We must begin by consciously selecting the ethics and values we regard as essential for the kind of life we want. I believe these ethics and values should be based not just upon what we’ve learned from parents, teachers, friends and society, but also upon the great ethical truths of the past—truths which are taught by the Bible, the Koran, the Magna Carta, the Constitution. When we begin with the great truths as our basis, we can then examine our own experiences in the light of these truths and then create our own personal ethics system, a code we will be proud and happy to use.

What would you do?

2010-12-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

As a police commissioner once said when he turned down the twentieth bribe offer he had received that day, “Ethics ain’t easy!” All of us are faced by those moments when doing what’s right is very different from doing what’s easy or what would be the most profitable. That’s one of the reasons for a company to have a mission statement or a code of conduct: so that employees understand what’s expected of them when they’re faced with the choice between right versus easy, ethical versus profitable.
The problem is that so many choices fall into the gray area in between! What do you do when making the ethical choice will almost certainly hurt someone? What if doing something a little bit wrong will help create a very large “right”? Take a few moments to read the examples below and answer the questions they pose, and you’ll see what I mean.

• Your co-worker asks you to cover for him so he can sneak out of work early to go to his son’s softball game. Do you agree? If he went anyway, would you keep silent?
• You’re about ready to sign a big new client to a contract worth over $50,000. Your boss is under a lot of pressure to increase sales. He calls you into his office and tells you his job is on the line, and he asks you to include the revenue for your contract in the sales figures for the quarter that ends tomorrow. You know the contract is a sure thing but the client is out of town and cannot possibly sign by tomorrow. What do you do?
• The manufacturing cost of the widgets your company makes has dropped by 50%. One of your customers, Sam, tells you he knows this because he is best friends with your company’s VP of production, and asks you for a discount on his order. Your boss okays the discount. Your other customer, Sue (who is one of your best friends and knows nothing about the drop in manufacturing costs) places the exact same order for widgets as Sam. Do you offer her a similar discount? Do you tell her about the drop in manufacturing costs?
• Company policy forbids co-workers to become romantically involved. You go to the same church as someone from another department, and you find yourself becoming attracted to this person. Do you pursue the relationship?
• Your best friend is the VP of one of the companies with which your firm does business. You take her out for lunch just to catch up on personal stuff, and you pick up the check. Do you declare this a “business lunch” and submit the receipt for reimbursement?
• While in the restroom, you overhear your boss telling a colleague that Bob is going to be laid off at the end of the quarter, in about two weeks’ time. Bob is a good friend of yours. Do you tell him?
• One of the newest salespeople in your division is a real goof-off, never showing up for work on time, distracting other people with his antics, and so on. You complain about him to your boss, who tells you the kid is the son of the company president. Your boss instructs you not only to leave the new guy alone but also to make his sales numbers look good by throwing him some no-brainer accounts. What do you do?

Now, just in case you’re feeling very virtuous because you know you’d always make the ethical choice in those cases, ask yourself:
Have you ever
. . . lied to your mother? your boss? the IRS?
. . . lied so you wouldn’t hurt someone’s feelings?
. . . lied to get out of a business or social engagement?
. . . taken a questionable deduction on your income tax?
. . . fudged figures on a report to make the results look better?
. . . taken a sick day when you weren’t sick?
. . . lied to a customer (“we sent your order yesterday”) or creditor (“the check’s in the mail”)?
. . . cut corners on quality control?
. . . blamed someone else for something you knew you were partly responsible for?
. . . used any of these phrases: “Everybody does it,” “It’s the lesser of two evils,” “It’s only a little white lie,” “It doesn’t hurt anyone,” “Who will know?”
. . . put inappropriate pressure on others?

In the real world, ethics ain’t easy. Somehow we need to come up with a way of looking at even the most complicated situations and evaluating them with an eye to what’s right—not what will cause the least trouble. We need a basis upon which to build the kind of success that feels good because we know what we’re doing represents us at our best.

Traditional morality lives!

2010-12-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

http://tinyurl.com/2836b5g

Sounds like a good book to read! It's about time morality becomes a focal point and not money.

Where does conscience fit into your decisions?

2010-12-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the Disney movie classic, Pinocchio? In that movie Jiminy Cricket served as Pinocchio’s conscience. He was always around to remind Pinocchio about the right thing to do. Sometimes Pinocchio ignored him, sometimes he listened to him; but Jiminy Cricket stayed by Pinocchio’s side no matter what. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone like that in today’s business climate—someone outside ourselves who knows exactly what to do and is willing to stick by us no matter what, keeping us on the high road to success?
An under utilized and valued concept that needs to be strongly emphasized is the concept of conscience. Where does conscience fit into one's decision-making and what are one's obligations to conscience in discerning what's right or wrong?
Conscience, according to Thomas Aquinas, one of the most profound thinkers/philosophers/ theologians of the Middle ages, defines conscience as "the application of knowledge to activity (Summa Theologiae,I-II). He goes on to explain: "Conscience is the act of determining that which I ought to do or not do, or that I was right or wrong in performing that action." This issue here is what is the process by which one determines whether one is using conscience appropriately? Aquinas reflects that in order to use conscience effectively, because Aquinas believed that one obliged to always follow one's conscience,
one must insure that conscience is well informed and objectively educated. It is then and only then one morally obligated to act on it. There lies the crux of decision-making! Making a decision on the solely on emotions, subjective reasoning or rationalization is not an ethical way to make decisions. Time and effort must go into being well informed and being able to understand opposing viewpoints, in order to more objectively make the best decision. Therefore, making an ethical choice cannot be done in the "spur of the moment". This decision calls for introspection, information and application.
Your code of ethics and values can act as your own personal Jiminy Cricket.
Your values, your code of ethics and the internalization of the same are the basis for the development of conscience. It is important that you internalized in advance what your values are, keeping in mind, much will be dependent on the situation. Not that that each situation will determine the ethics needed to make the decision, but rather it's the challenge of applying one's values and code of ethics differently depending on the variables of the situation. The process is not one of finding values to fit the situation, but rather how do my values relate to each particular situation?
Once you’ve created your own personal code of conduct, the next step is to internalize these ethics and values, making them a natural part of your decision-making process. Ethics are what you do even when nobody is looking. Therefore, ethics have to come from the inside out, not from the outside in. When you internalize your code—when principles like honesty, decency, and looking out for the other guy form the basis of your daily decisions and actions—then you can make the tough choices with more confidence.
Because I’m not going to kid you: even when you have a clear code of ethics to guide you, the tough choices aren’t any less difficult; they’re just clearer. Often the “right” course is simply the one that will cause less damage in the long term.
The ethical choice may mean you refuse to support your boss in fudging figures on a report, for example. In the short term this might cause a rift between you and your boss, perhaps even make you both look bad to company management. But in the long term your credibility (as well as your boss’s integrity) will be less damaged by telling the truth than by lying and possibly getting caught.
Once we have internalized our personal code of conduct, then comes the hard part: we must choose to abide by those ethics and values in each situation that arises. Remember, ethics are honesty not just in principle but in action. We each have to choose to take the ethical action in every context, and ideally our code of conduct is always an integral part of that decision-making process.
This doesn’t mean you need to be rigid in your interpretation of your ethics and values. You can stay true to the essence of your code of conduct while being flexible in its application. The Constitution of the United States is a great example of this principle in action. The Constitution is the essence of our law, but how it is applied or amended can vary depending upon circumstances and requirements. In the same way, we each need to abide by the essence of our own code of conduct (and if our business has a mission statement or code of its own, to abide by that). At the same time, we must be open to the fact that our values are not absolute and may need, at times, to be reevaluated and adapted.
We must choose well which path we follow on the high road to success. We need to analyze our values and ethics, apply them in a consistent yet compassionate manner, and make sure our workplace values and personal values are not in conflict. We must make sure our values are not situational—that is, we have one set of rules for our work and another for our kids or our relationships. That kind of “moral schizophrenia” can only make our choices more difficult, not less. Like the Constitution, if our code of conduct is something we believe in then we should hold onto it, apply it even-handedly, change it slowly, after much deliberation, and recognize that it will ultimately define who we are because it controls what we do.

Whistleblower ethics

2010-11-30T07:31:00.000-08:00

“Hey, I am trying to tell you there is a problem…”

Have you ever been in the position of relating bad news to someone in the workplace—maybe it was about a product that does not deliver on its promises, unsanitary or unsafe conditions, or a co-worker who is way beyond bending the rules in order to get ahead? Depending on when this happened, you may have been treated more like the “bad news” itself, rather than just the deliverer of bad news.
Not that many years ago reporting ethics or compliance problems could be a risky proposition and a positive outcome for the person doing the reporting was anything but guaranteed. Today many organizations have improved systems for reporting and protecting workers who bring problems to light but even so that does not always translate into a seamless process. Take a case taken from the headlines this past month…
“Attorneys representing the Health and Human Services Department, states and a whistle-blower announced on October 26 that pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline will plead guilty to selling faulty drugs to Medicare and Medicaid and pay $750million in penalties.” (GlaxoSmithKline agrees to pay $750 million penalty for fraud, November 8, 2010 Doug Trapp, amednews .com)
Apparently whistle-blower Cheryl Eckard, who will receive nearly a $96 million piece of the settlement pie, tried utilizing the system that was in place for reporting problems with little success. According to reports she was fired in 2003 and had “repeatedly” reported problems to her “superiors and the compliance department about the Cidra, Puerto Rico plant.” She said she was ignored, even when she threatened to go to the Food and Drug Administration. She ended up reporting the problems to the FDA. One statement particularly that caught my attention… “This is not something I ever wanted to do, but because of patient safety issues, it was necessary.” (GlaxoSmithKline settles bad drug case for $750 M, USA Today 10-26, 2010, Denise Lavoie, Associated Press)
As useful as fines and penalties are in driving home the importance of integrity and high road behavior, and the amounts involved were certainly attention grabbing-- I think it is a shame that things ever went that far. In an industry where patient safety seems mighty important, her actions seem in line with expectations the public has about quality regarding the drugs upon which we rely. I think Cheryl Eckard serves as a reminder that whistle-blowers are not the problem.
If this were addressed by the organization early on, utilizing the system in place, wouldn’t this have had a less damaging result for the corporation? There is no guarantee, even with self-reporting, that even if this were handled “by the book” that there would still not have been a financial hit and a big headache for all involved. But I can’t imagine that the damage would have been anywhere equal to this.

Considering the risks involved, I think a prudent approach for business is not to react in a knee-jerk fashion to bad news, but rather carefully consider whether apparent “bad news” could actually be “good news.” The kind of good news that helps to avoid costly litigation, keeps the brand strong, the reputation untarnished, and at the same time challenges leaders to examine if the way business is conducted is actually in line with the standards that they profess.
As individuals, we also can be guilty of a knee jerk response to bad news. If we are as interested in continuous improvement as we like to think we are, it might also be a worthwhile practice for all of us to examine how we react when bad news lands on our doorstep as well.

Ethics and Business

2010-11-29T07:24:00.001-08:00

Can Business be Ethical and Successful?

Most people will tell you that “business ethics” is a contradiction in terms. “Impossible!” they say. “You have to do everything you can to give customers what they want and increase shareholder value. No one can put ethics before the bottom line and succeed in today’s business climate. Ethics just can’t be a top priority.” And unfortunately, in most cases this view seems to be winning.
What can we do when it seems the bad guys always come out on top? How can we compete in a world where customers ask for incentives that walk a fine line between good service and illegal kickbacks, where unscrupulous salespeople close the deal because they lie, where boardrooms and shareholders alike are screaming for ever-increasing profits while clients demand the lowest possible price, where every bad corporate citizen subjected to a fine knows there are thirty other companies doing the exact same thing?
There is a high road to success, one where people live and work according to a set of values, ethics and principles that can make them feel good about themselves and the job they do. More and more companies are learning the power of the high road—they’re creating standards for themselves and their employees; they’re doing business ethically; and they’re acting as good corporate citizens in their communities. As a result, people are proud to work for these companies, customers are proud to buy from them, and shareholders are proud to invest in them.
I believe the high road can actually create greater wealth and success in the long term. Material wealth may appear in the form of customer and employee loyalty, community support, and steady, sustained growth. But the less tangible wealth of good will and inner certainty are far more important in the long run. We each have to live with ourselves, and our ethics will determine how good that life is, inside our own heads and hearts as well as inside our companies.
Taking the high road in today’s climate of compromise isn’t easy. After all, while the low road is paved with easy decisions and immediate payoffs, the high road is full of the potholes of tough decisions and delayed gratification. The high road requires commitment—the willingness to decide what you stand for and how you want your company to be seen. It demands that each of us make choices daily between the easy way and the right way, between getting the sale unethically and not getting the sale at all, between “going with the flow” and standing like a rock against the prevailing tide of ethical compromise.
Ultimately, the benefits of taking the high road are enormous. The high road may not lead you to quick and easy success, but it will enable you to look in the mirror every night and like who you see there. It will allow you to look in the faces of your customers, your boss and your colleagues knowing you have done your best for them, for yourself, and for the greater good. And it will enable you to stand before your children as an example rather than a warning.

Test your ethics

2010-11-17T11:56:00.000-08:00

Test Yourself: What Would You Do?

As a police commissioner once said when he turned down the twentieth bribe offer he had received that day, “Ethics ain’t easy!” All of us are faced by those moments when doing what’s right is very different from doing what’s easy or what would be the most profitable. That’s one of the reasons for a company to have a mission statement or a code of conduct: so that employees understand what’s expected of them when they’re faced with the choice between right versus easy, ethical versus profitable.
The problem is that so many choices fall into the gray area in between! What do you do when making the ethical choice will almost certainly hurt someone? What if doing something a little bit wrong will help create a very large “right”? Take a few moments to read the examples below and answer the questions they pose, and you’ll see what I mean.

• Your co-worker asks you to cover for him so he can sneak out of work early to go to his son’s softball game. Do you agree? If he went anyway, would you keep silent?
• You’re about ready to sign a big new client to a contract worth over $50,000. Your boss is under a lot of pressure to increase sales. He calls you into his office and tells you his job is on the line, and he asks you to include the revenue for your contract in the sales figures for the quarter that ends tomorrow. You know the contract is a sure thing but the client is out of town and cannot possibly sign by tomorrow. What do you do?
• The manufacturing cost of the widgets your company makes has dropped by 50%. One of your customers, Sam, tells you he knows this because he is best friends with your company’s VP of production, and asks you for a discount on his order. Your boss okays the discount. Your other customer, Sue (who is one of your best friends and knows nothing about the drop in manufacturing costs) places the exact same order for widgets as Sam. Do you offer her a similar discount? Do you tell her about the drop in manufacturing costs?
• Company policy forbids co-workers to become romantically involved. You go to the same church as someone from another department, and you find yourself becoming attracted to this person. Do you pursue the relationship?
• Your best friend is the VP of one of the companies with which your firm does business. You take her out for lunch just to catch up on personal stuff, and you pick up the check. Do you declare this a “business lunch” and submit the receipt for reimbursement?
• While in the restroom, you overhear your boss telling a colleague that Bob is going to be laid off at the end of the quarter, in about two weeks’ time. Bob is a good friend of yours. Do you tell him?
• One of the newest salespeople in your division is a real goof-off, never showing up for work on time, distracting other people with his antics, and so on. You complain about him to your boss, who tells you the kid is the son of the company president. Your boss instructs you not only to leave the new guy alone but also to make his sales numbers look good by throwing him some no-brainer accounts. What do you do?

Now, just in case you’re feeling very virtuous because you know you’d always make the ethical choice in those cases, ask yourself:
Have you ever
. . . lied to your mother? your boss? the IRS?
. . . lied so you wouldn’t hurt someone’s feelings?
. . . lied to get out of a business or social engagement?
. . . taken a questionable deduction on your income tax?
. . . fudged figures on a report to make the results look better?
. . . taken a sick day when you weren’t sick?
. . . lied to a customer (“we sent your order yesterday”) or creditor (“the check’s in the mail”)?
. . . cut corners on quality control?
. . . blamed someone else for something you knew you were partly responsible for?
. . . used any of these phrases: “Everybody does it,” “It’s the lesser of two evils,” “It’s only a little white lie,” “It doesn’t hurt anyone,” “Who will know?”
. . . put inappropriate pressure on others?

In the real world, ethics ain’t easy. Somehow we need to come up with a way of looking at even the most complicated situations and evaluating them with an eye to what’s right—not what will cause the least trouble. We need a basis upon which to build the kind of success that feels good because we know what we’re doing represents us at our best.