It is accepted as lore that a company’s culture, the way it
does business and the way it treats staff and all people in its orbit, is
established by its most senior executives(s). In a certain sense it is, even in flattened, non-hierarchal organizations.
It is proven that companies having ethical leadership see a higher degree of ethical action throughout the organization than companies not having such leadership do. It is extremely difficult for an organization to overcome a CEO who is dishonest, treats people indifferently or uncivilly, or more subtly, believes that the
ends justify the means.
Yet in most companies ethics and culture are everyone’s
business, with people in management holding a special sphere of responsibility.
Most organizations have a cultural malaise, where the focus
is so strongly on work, that other important aspects of an organization’s life are inadvertently pushed to the side.
For instance, many organizations say they respect and trust
their people to do the right thing, but they undermine that statement by
certain actions or inactions. The misalignments exist not because the
statements are false: these companies believe what they say. The misalignments occur because years of ad hoc policies and practices have become institutionalized and have obscured the firm's underlying values.
Identifying misalignments means looking around the organization, talking to people, getting input, and asking, "If these are our core values and this is fundamentally why we exist, what are the obstacles
that get in our way?"
Management at all levels must set a tone for an ethical
culture. It must be rigorous and disciplined in living it and establishing a
zero tolerance for willful neglect or lack of adherence to it.
Part of that rigor is to encourage employees to be honest
and forthright, about themselves and when they see a wrong. Yet 70% of interviewed people expect that employees who reported corruption would suffer for reporting it. In fact, 69% of public and private sector whistleblowers studied experienced reprisals in the form of lost jobs or forced retirement.
In order to assume responsibility as a leader in your organization, you must walk the talk. Truly effective leaders bring forth the best in everyone around them. Most effective leaders, irrespective of style, have deeply held values that they won’t compromise.
Here are some questions for
management at all levels to contemplate with regard to values and ethics.
- What are the core
values of your organization? Are you in alignment with these core values? Do you support these values in your actions?
- What core values do you bring to your work - values you hold to be so fundamental that you would hold them regardless of whether or not they are rewarded?
- How would you describe to your loved ones the core values you stand for in your work?
- If you asked the people that work with you what your values are, what do you suppose they would say? In other words, what values do your actions portray?
- If you awoke tomorrow morning with enough money to retire for the rest of your life, would you continue to hold onto these core values?
- Would you hold these values, even if at some point one or more of them became a competitive disadvantage?
- If you were to start a new organization tomorrow in a different line of work, what core values would you build into the new organization regardless of its activities? If they don’t exist now, why not? What and why are you holding back?
- At the end of the day, can you look your kids or other loved ones in the eye regarding your actions? If not, examine without judgment what you made more important, where you compromised.
We are all tested at given time; it’s a component of being human. Judging is easy and habitual. Figuring out a different way and
having the rigor to alter behavior is where mastery starts setting in. – Jacob Blass