The leadership of every organization must implicitly or explicitly recognize the ethical expectations of leaders by everyone else inside and outside of the organization. A poll of employees, stakeholders, customers, regulators, those connected to the organization for some important reason about what makes ethical leadership will yield this list:
- Find the truth as soon as possible: Tell that truth and act on it promptly.
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- Promptly raise the tough questions and answer them thoughtfully: This includes asking and answering questions yet to be asked or thought of by those who will affected by whatever the circumstance is.
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- Vocalize core business values and ideals constantly: Most core values are a set of ideas thought up on a management golfing outing, brought in on the back of a clubhouse napkin, then printed and posted without another word being spoken. The values and ideals of a business are those employees and others bring to work every day.
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- Walk the talk: Be accessible, help people understand the organization within the context of its values and ideals at every opportunity.
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- Help, expect and enforce ethical leadership: People are watching, people are counting, people know when there are lapses in ethics and trust is broken. When bad things happen in good organizations, it’s those occasional lapses that deepen the troubles.
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- Be a cheerleader, model and teacher of ethical behavior: Ethical behavior builds and maintains trust. In fact, to have trust in an organization requires that its leaders act ethically constantly.
James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, Fellow IABC; APR, Fellow PRSA, BEPS Emeritus
If you have questions, or would like to dive more deeply into the subject of this blog, you can reach me 24/7 at jel@e911.com; 203-948-7029 (voicemail, email, text). I look forward, as a friend and colleague, to helping you achieve the objectives you’ve set for yourself for having a happier, more influential, successful and meaningful career.
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I agree: “Help, expect and enforce” ethics: People are watching.” As discussed at your recent seminar, some good old boy industries (like coal) get a pass to look the other way, as long as the Chief is running a profitable operation.