Ethics & Integrity

I started this blog a few days ago. I kept coming back to it. Reading it. Changing it. "Re-thinking" it.

Integrity and business ethics are important topics to me. Topics I feel that are overlooked in our need to be competitive and on the business side, profitable.

Back in January of this year I addressed Leadership Honesty & Integrity. More and more in the news, blogs and forums, the topic of integrity and ethics is addressed. But let's start at the very basics. What are Ethics? What is Integrity?

By definition, Ethics are an external system of rules and laws. Many organizations have developed a Code of Ethics (or conduct) that employees are expected to obey. Within your business, how do you manage these values? How do you communicate these values? Do you hold your employees to a high ethical standard? Oftentimes a company will rely on the ethics (values) of the employees themselves. That can be a problem. You're basing this on the assumption that all employees are ethical and honorable. Not everyone shares the same ethical values, are ethical or are ethically strong. Not every employee is ethically "intelligent" enough to see and resolve identical issues when they arise. You are at risk of saying "our employees are ethical, let's not worry about it."

Integrity is an internal system of principles that guides our behaviors. Integrity is a choice rather than an obligation. Even though our level of integrity is influenced by our upbringing and exposure, it can not be forced by outside sources. When we act with integrity, we do what is right. Even if no one is watching. People with integrity are guided by core principles that empower them to behave consistently to high standards. Compassion, dependability, generosity, honesty, kindness, loyalty, maturity, objectivity, respect, trust and wisdom. The "virtues" listed above are the valuable personal and professional assets that employees develop and bring to work each day.

One question that continues to be raised, "is personal integrity and business integrity the same?" I believe that integrity is an "all in one" system. It is hard to separate personal integrity from work integrity. In making a choice, one should always consult their personal value system and consider what is the best choice for the company that supports you. If you are forced to do things that are against your better judgement, it is time to find an organization whose values closely resemble yours! Having an ethical business is directly related to the conduct of the individual business people within the organization.

Integrity is based on a strict adherence to a set of values or principles. Integrity for me may be different from integrity for someone else with different values. But I can not switch or modify my value system based on a situation. So for me, I have one set of values to define integrity for me. Any compromise would suggest that I don't have real integrity.

What steps can we take to be an ethical organization? Define the corporate values and the ethical standard minimums. Require every level of the organization to know how these values will be lived. You educate, from the top - down, these values. Each manager, employee, supervisor or executive should model these values so that each and every person knows how to apply these ethics to real situations. Keep an open door policy to discuss and resolve those tough cases. Reward behavior that is consistent with the values. Renew the values frequently. Even in the best managed organization you need to roll the values out frequently. Don't let them weaken. This may take a bit more effort on your part. But the value, in the long-run, is immeasurable.

On the personal front, each day every person makes a choice (or choices) that distinguish them from others, both professionally as well as personally. We have to recognize that ethics is never a business issue, a social issue or a political issue. It is a personal issue. We want integrity. But, oftentimes people don't always act with the kind of integrity that they want from others. Ask yourself one simple question. "Is it right or wrong?" You can not have one set of values for your professional life and one for your personal life. If someone forces you to do something that is wrong, even if it means using "rank", then it's time to move on to another organization that will respect and reward you for who you are.

Keep communicating!