You may enjoy a piece that appeared in the Globe and Mail on how ethical mistakes may impact your career. Read it at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/be-careful-an-ethical-mistake-can-be-fatal-to-your-career/article22067000/
Avoid Fatal Ethics Mistakes #4
December 12, 2014 — MarkAnother tip on avoiding fatal ethics mistakes:
Don’t use pressure to justify an unethical action. Many fatal ethics mistakes are made under pressure to just make some decision, any decision. Rather than think things through, you take the path closest at hand even if it is ethically questionable. The rationalization is that anyone under the same pressure might make the same choice. Be on guard when you feel pressure to just make a decision. Hindsight will judge the action without considering the pressure.
Ethics and the Line of Command
December 10, 2014 — MarkYou may enjoy this article by Harvey Schacter of the Globe & Mail on ethics and the line of command: http://tinyurl.com/o39df7v
Avoid Fatal Ethics Mistakes #3
December 9, 2014 — MarkAnother tip on avoiding fatal ethics mistakes:
Respect your innate sense of right and wrong. When we do something wrong, we often ignore an uneasiness about the action that we may not be able to explain. In a world of ethical relativism, it is unfashionable to claim to have an inner sense of right and wrong. And yet we do. In almost every fatal ethics mistake I have observed, the individual making the mistake sensed that the action was wrong beforehand.
In my book Make an Ethical Difference I explain what this innate sense of right and wrong is and when it should be trusted.
Avoid Fatal Ethics Mistakes #2
December 5, 2014 — MarkAnother 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.
Avoid Fatal Ethics Mistakes #1
December 4, 2014 — MarkIn 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.
Fatal Ethics Mistakes
December 1, 2014 — MarkIt 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.
Be Ethically Strategic
November 25, 2014 — MarkBe strategic about ethics. It is rare that the ethics of an individual and the ethics of an organization agree completely. It is just as rare for the ethics of an individual and their co-workers agree perfectly. Being ethical does not mean being unwilling to compromise when the inevitable disagreements occur. If you are too rigid about your ethics, you are sure to limit your ability to influence the organization when it really matters. Ethical leaders compromise on small issues to build the personal capital needed to influence the big issues. You may disagree with others in your organization about whether an ad is deceptive. But if you are also concerned with a product safety issue, you might save your ethical capital for that fight. One thing that thwarts the success of ethical managers is being overly rigid about their ethics. It is worth compromising on the smaller issues in the interests of winning on the issues of significant ethical impact.
Avoid Ethics Traps
November 16, 2014 — MarkThis post is part of series on ethics and success.
An ethics trap is a situation in which you are forced to choose between your ethics and an organizational goal. An example would be a bid situation in which the other bidders have inflated their experience, and your organization can make it to the next round by inflating its own experience. It is lie or lose – or so it seems. There are many ways to avoid such traps. For example, you document your real experience in a way that the other bidders can’t match. You can also message in your bid that others may be inflating their experience, e.g., by providing references across your claimed experience. You have to find a way to “spring” the ethics trap. A low ethics manager goes along with “market conditions” while a high ethics leader seeks to change them.
Trademark Your Ethics
November 10, 2014 — MarkThis post is part of a series of posts on ethics and success.
If you want ethics to fuel your success, make ethics part of how you work. For example, if you are in a sales position, get to be known for providing customers with honest information. Make honesty a part of your sales edge. If you work on a technical team, be generous in giving others credit for what they accomplish. Just as we have confidence in companies with a reputation for honesty, people will have confidence in you if ethics is your work trademark. Will others try to take advantage of your ethics? Certainly. But your ethical trademark will help you push them back over time as others see their conduct for what it is.
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Mark Pastin 