Octover 3, 2011
Meaning: Everyone wants leaders with integrity – it should be the minimum price of admission to leadership. Yet with the seemingly endless corporate and political scandals we have witnessed, it is clear that integrity is not a given. Even though many organizations tout integrity as a core value, some still say it is in short supply. If it is a core value for you, then don’t hide it. How can others learn about your standards or what is important ethically if you are silent on the matter? Find ways to define integrity, talk about it and highlight actions that display it. If you put integrity front and center in your conversations, it will have a strong ripple effect. There will be no question: this is how we do business here.
Ideas for Action: Share and repeat stories that show how you or others in your company have dealt with ethical dilemmas. For example, during his tenure as CEO of agribusiness giant Cargill, Warren Staley spoke frequently with employees and outsiders about the company’s expectations for ethical behavior, including the challenges of doing business in other parts of the world. He exhorted people to operate with the utmost integrity while showing zero tolerance for anyone who violated the company’s code of conduct.
Cargill put acquisition candidates to the same test. In an interview with Chief Executive magazine, Staley recounted that if the target company’s ethics did not align with those of Cargill, his company declined the opportunity. He and Cargill had no interest in acquiring a business that condoned unethical behavior or looked the other way when it occurred. “It is very hard to compete against unethical people,” he said.
Business integrity is also seen in smaller, day-to-day actions. Here are just a few of them: being transparent, owning mistakes, keeping confidences, being honest with customers and employees, keeping information about individual clients or patients confidential, maintaining accurate records and competing fairly. What does it mean in your business and your world? Gather and tell the stories.
Bring ethical quandaries out in the open too. When have you encountered a situation where it took you a while to figure out the right thing to do? For example, a need for confidentiality can be at direct odds with a desire to be honest or transparent. Or a valued customer may make a request that you believe is inappropriate. What have you done or how have you handled the situation? Talk about it.
It would be wonderful if you could walk into work tomorrow ready to tell a story about integrity in your organization. If you don’t have your own story to tell, use an example (good or bad) from the news and raise it as a discussion topic with your team: Could this type of event ever happen here?
By giving integrity a voice through regular workplace discussions, you will likely gain untapped reserves of support from employees and those outside of your organization.
Best regards,
Sandra Davis, CEO