Another tip on avoiding fatal ethics mistakes:
Act on the principle that nothing you do is private. Most people who make fatal ethics mistakes gamble that their action will never be discovered. They are trying to fly under the radar. But we live in a world in which everything we do is tracked, recorded and potentially accessible. Even if it was once reasonable to assume you might fly under the radar, there is no space under the radar today.
In my previous post titled “Fatal Ethics Mistakes,” I discussed several fatal ethics mistakes. The point of this is to find ways to avoid fatal ethics mistakes. Over the next few posts, I will provide some practical steps you can talk to avoid making such mistakes. It helps to read “Fatal Ethics Mistakes” before reading these posts. So here are some tips:
Don’t justify what you do by what others would do in the same situation. I am sure the sales person who stole the lead justified his action by thinking that his colleague would do the same thing given the chance – and that may be true. But when you are caught doing something unethical, it quickly becomes clear that what others would do is no excuse. You own your own actions.
It is often far harder to recover from an ethics mistake than an ordinary mistake. While an ordinary mistake may reveal a lack of knowledge or attention, an ethical mistake colors perception of everything a person does. When caught in an ethical mistake, admitting to it often does not settle the matter. Doubt remains about the character of the person who made the mistake.
Suppose you steal a sales lead from a co-worker by intercepting a phone call from a customer that was intended for the co-worker – “She’s not available but, no worries, I can help you with that…. ” You take over the call, steal the customer and get paid incentive for doing so. And then you are caught. Not only will your co-worker never trust you again; she will put out the word that you prey on your colleagues. You made a fatal ethics mistake.
Or suppose you are working on a new drug being tested in clinical trials. The company is gambling a lot on this drug and you are proud of your role in its development. After the closing date for all trials to be reported, a late report arrives indicating problems with the drug. It is the only negative report and you are entitled to ignore it because it is late. You bury the late study. But when the drug is released, there are serious side effects just as predicted by the late study. You made a fatal ethics mistake.
Hindsight is 20/20 and you may conclude that you would never make these mistakes. And yet in my daily work as a consultant, I see many fatal ethics mistakes made by ordinary people. While they almost always regret these mistakes, they have often injured their careers irreparably. In ethics, it is often one strike and you are out.
Fatal ethics mistakes are almost entirely avoidable if you take certain precautions when facing difficult decisions. In a series of posts, I will provide tips on avoiding ethical mistakes based on my experience as an ethics consultant.
The third big ethical mistake that leaders make is allowing managers in an area suspected of wrong-doing to investigate the matter. Leaders believe they should show trust in the their managers and allow them to investigate accusations. But the chances that the manager is conflicted are too great to take this path. By the way, I discuss ways of avoiding these mistakes in my book Make an Ethical Difference.
In my pursuit of the biggest mistakes leaders make, the second biggest mistake is fixing a problem going forward without owning the problem’s history. This would be like GM fixing its ignition problem going forward without owning the problem in cars currently on the road. This never works but it is very tempting to leaders who don’t want a past problem dragging their organization down. But you have to own the organization’s history to be able to move on.
What ethical mistakes do you see leaders making? I have an odd view since I only hear from them when they have problems. What do you think?
In my book Make an Ethical Difference I use the following quote: The master knows the rules without suffering them; the slave suffers the rules without knowing them.”
My book Make an Ethical Difference is on sale at half price today at http://oreilly.com/. One day only.
Welcome to Mark Pastin’s web site. You will find information about Mark and his publications, services and speaking engagements here. Mark started working on ethics and compliance problems in business, government and the professions in the early 1970s. His 1986 book, The Hard Problems of Management: Gaining the Ethics Edge, was the first to take a managerial approach to ethics in business. (See Publications for details.) In his new book, Mark shows readers how to use their own innate ethical sense to create organizational and social change. Make an Ethical Difference: Tools for Better Action was released late in 2013 and is available now at Amazon.com and Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
The attached video explains the main themes of Mark Pastin’s new book Make an Ethical Difference. One novel theme of the book is that individuals have an innate ability to make ethical judgments. Pastin calls this ability the “ethics eye.” More on this topic in coming posts as the main themes of Make an Ethical Difference are previewed.
ethicswhisperer.com
Mark Pastin 