Watch for Ethical Danger Signs

Copyright © 2004 by Don Blohowiak
Don@LeadWell.com www.LeadWell.com

Almost everyone at some time faces pressure to cut ethical corners on the job.

Here are some guidelines to help you know when you should raise your own alarms about potential problems with business ethics in your workplace.

Danger signs of potential ethical violations include:

• Directives that violate the law, vary significantly from accepted practices, or are contrary to your organization's own policies or values statement
  
  
• Pressure, subtle or overt, to mislead, lie, cheat or steal
  
  
• Instructions to change, falsify, hide or destroy documentation; or to keep no records of something that ordinarily should be documented
  
  
• Requests or demands for you to swear loyalty or secrecy
  
  
• Whispers, closed doors and secret meetings
  
  
• Midnight shredding parties
  
  
• People saying phrases such as:
  
  
  •  Don't be such a saint, Scout, or goodie two shoes!
  •  No one will even notice.
  •  Go along to get along.
  •  Everyone does it.
  •  Just this once.
  •  Do it for the good of the company.
  •  It really doesn't hurt anyone.
  •  Come on, nobody really cares about this stuff.
  •  The ends justify the means.
  •  This isn't what it looks like.
  •  This goes no further than this room...
  •  This meeting never happened.
  •  I'm counting on your loyalty.
  •  Technically, this isn't illegal.
  •  No one else needs to know about this.
  •  In the grand scheme of things, this really isn't that big a deal.
  •  Let's get our stories straight.
  •  If we stick to the company line, everything will be fine.
  •  It may not seem like it, but this really is for the best.
  •  If you repeat this, I'll deny it.
  •  I'm not telling you to do this, but...
  •  Just following orders.
  •  The boss wants this / says it's okay / does it!

If you find yourself confronting any of these warning signs in your organization, heads up! You're treading on thin ice, wandering into quicksand, plodding through a mine field. Choose your favorite metaphor, it could be very serious trouble ahead.

Proceed with extreme caution, courage, and conscience. Remember, you'll never regret having no regrets.

Actionable advice about how you can take a practical approach to doing business ethically (one of my absolute favorite topics to teach in participatory seminars), will continue to be a recurring focus of this site.

Lead Well® helps organizations to improve measurable results by developing their current and future leaders. For more information, please contact us. By phone, toll-free in the USA: 1-888-LeadWell (532-3935), or 1-609-716-9490. By email, Info@LeadWell.com.

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Don Blohowiak, a management consultant and popular conference speaker, is the author of several business books. The executive director of the Lead Well® Institute in Princeton, NJ, he may be reached at http://www.LeadWell.com/.

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Copyright © 2005, Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute

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