Leadership Thought for the Week, January 22, 2007
January 22, 2007 by Mary Jo Manzanares
I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character!
—- Theodore Roosevelt
Action Plan: When did it happen that ethics, and doing the right thing, became negotiable? When did we start admiring businesses and business leaders who didn’t do the right thing, yet made tons of money? Has earning lots of money now become the new “doing the right thing?”
This week I urge you to take a look at how your work behavior is consistent (or inconsistent) with ethical principles. Do you live and espouse one set of ethical beliefs in your personal life, only to have to put them aside when you enter the workplace? Do you constantly find yourself rationalizing behavior at work, whether yours or another’s? Do we do what everyone else is doing, even when it is at odds with our own principles? Do we follow the herd or are we willing to boldly set off on our own?
There is nothing wrong with making money. I’ve become rather accustomed to the things that money can do for me, providing a roof over my head, food on my table, and a whole lot of creature comforts in life. But when did making money becomes more important than operating a business in an ethical fashion? Sometimes, I scratch my head and wonder about what went wrong.
What steps can we take this week to ensure that our personal values and business values are in harmony with one another?
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For a minute there, I could’ve bet you were painting a picture of the thousands of top-level managers who slashed millions of jobs in America to have them “outsourced”, namely in the IT field.
Ethics have everything to do with the “social contract” and saddly, way too many greedy people forget how fragile the legs they stand on really are and what happens when those legs fail.
Keep those ethics pieces coming!