By Linda Fisher Thornton
The first post in this series addressed ACCOUNTABILITY. The second asked you to evaluate your IMPACT. These four ways to Change the Ethics Quo (For Good) focus on MANAGING THE SYSTEM.
Ready to Change the Ethics Quo (For Good)?
Manage the System
- COMMUNICATE OPENLY ABOUT ETHICAL ISSUES: Are ethical expectations clear and widely communicated? Does widely communicated include open conversations about grey areas? If not, start those conversations, framing them as important ways to change the ethics quo and improve the organization.
- BRING ETHICS TO LIFE: Does ethics have a life beyond procedures and the shelf full of ethics manuals? Are the materials readable and relatable so that people can succeed in applying them? Are they current? Are they followed? If not, find ways to bring ethics to life so that people know it’s “the way we do things” and not “that binder on the second shelf.”
- REWARD ETHICAL CHOICES: Is ethical behavior rewarded just as much as financial profitability (in promotions, awards and public recognition)? If not, the message of your ethics system is “we are ethical unless it interferes with making money.” Get it straight by making ethics at least as important as (or more important than) profits.
- INTEGRATE ETHICS INTO EVERYTHING: Is ethics an integrated part of all training and performance management instead of being “separate?” If ethics training is separate that may give the impression that ethics can be separated from good performance and good leadership. If performance is rewarded based on results and not ethics, you’ll get results without ethics. Make sure that ethics is a thread woven through every learning experience for every audience and through the fabric of your culture.
We may think that things are going well when there are no major problems, but that’s a “false reading” for ethics. Without prevention and taking the steps recommended in this series, we will be “putting out fires” and cleaning up damage to our organization’s reputation. Don’t wait for that to happen. This week, work on these important ways to MANAGE THE SYSTEM.
Ready to Change the Ethics Quo (For Good)? Part 4
Prepare Your Leaders For Ethical Leadership Future – Help Them Learn To See Through The 7 Lenses®.
Learn how ethical expectations are increasing, and what you can do to stay ahead of the curve.
Click the cover to read a free preview!
Unleash the Positive Power of Ethical Leadership®
©2016 Leading in Context LLC
Leading in Context 
Reblogged this on Gr8fullsoul.
LikeLike
We have become hyper-aware of ethical lapses and we have high expectations for our leaders. We have global problems we can’t solve unless we work together. The kind of leadership we need now is self-aware, globally collaborative and highly responsible, meeting the needs of many different constituents with elegant solutions that earn broad support.
LikeLike
Thank Linda, another great piece. While I try to be ethical in all of my dealings at all levels and on all subjects, I have been concerned about the current state of our National leadership. I am repulsed by the fact that people and organizations I used to hold in the highest level of trust are now at the bottom of the scale, where nothing they say or do can be trusted. We are headed for a very dark period of time in the country as the Rule of Law continues to erode.
LikeLike