There are many elements that contribute to an ethical culture, but by far the most important is ethical leadership. Leaders must demonstrate their commitment to ethics in actions, not just in words. Many managers send mixed messages to their people. For example, they talk about the importance of ethics, but let their best salesperson get away with being less than ethical because it is the company’s biggest source of income.
The responsibility of management is clear: Ultimately, they are responsible and therefore must ensure that the company does the right thing.
Simply put, there are two good reasons for you, as a manager, to develop your ethical knowledge:
1. To protect yourself from making a decision that could cause problems for you or your company.
2. To make yourself more marketable. A good understanding of the subject is likely to become more and more in demand as organizations become increasingly interested in ethics.
The question is, what exactly do you need to do? If you manage other people, consultants, or vendors, there are six essential elements to being an ethical leader (and I use the term ‘leader’ in a very broad sense, as many people are leaders even though they don’t have the job or status):
1. Take responsibility. Ethical leaders take personal responsibility for ensuring that their part in the organization is ethical. This includes making it clear to people what standards are required and that no violations will be overlooked.
2. Be honest (with yourself and with others). Sincerity is the quality of being truthful, direct and honest. It’s not just about telling the truth, it’s about telling the whole truth. Some people are adept at telling the truth while omitting information knowing that they are giving an impression of something while wanting to say something else. This is selectively telling the truth, it is not frankness. If the boss is honest, it does not necessarily mean that the employees will be honest, but there is a much higher probability than if the boss is less honest.
3. Be transparent. The usual definition of the word “transparency” in the business context has to do with the full disclosure of financial information to investors. However, it is about much more than compliance and regulation. It is about open communication and not about hiding information. True transparency can only happen in a culture of high trust. Bosses must entrust employees with data that they would not want to fall into the hands of competitors, for example. A manager who trusts his people and is transparent and who gives the real reasons for decisions (rather than withholding information or relying on the “spin”) will create a culture in which transparency and openness are not valued.
4. Challenge for doing wrong. This sounds so obvious, but it doesn’t always happen because people are too busy to pass up something that they should really challenge. Very often they don’t challenge because doing so means having an awkward conversation and few people enjoy that. However, being prepared to do so is the foundation of potentially challenging unethical behavior.
5. Increase your knowledge of work ethics. Being ethical is not just a matter of understanding and being clear about your own moral values. Certainly that’s part of it. But it’s also about acquiring certain skills and abilities, including the ability to identify an ethical issue in the first place, the ability to have a tough conversation, and the knowledge of the right questions to ask to address an ethical issue and come up with the best decision. .
6. Become a role model. Being a good role model is as much about actions as it is about words.
Doing the above six things will lead you to become a role model and therefore create a culture and context in which people are more likely to care about doing the right thing.
