Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

The Ethical Mind

Of 462 executives who were asked, "What characteristics are needed to be an effective leader today?" 56 percent ranked ethical behavior as an important characteristic, followed by sound judgment (51%) and being adaptable/flexible (47%).   American Management Association, New York, NY

Ethically minded individuals strive for good work and ethical balance in micro to global environments.

 

Four tools, while not sufficient for good work, are probably necessary:

 

1.    A mission. Without a mission, you don’t know what you’re aiming to achieve.  Try to develop a clear, actionable mission statement that embodies your values.

2.    One or more good models.  Without models, doing the ethical thing is much harder.

3.    An individual version of the “mirror test.” Look into the mirror and ask yourself if you like what you see. Do you approve of what you’re doing at work? It’s easy to deceive yourself, so get confirmation from people you respect.

4.    A professional version of the mirror test. Look into the mirror and see if your colleagues are living up to their professional obligations. If not, what can you do to improve the ethical fiber of your profession?

 

The Future Is Now

 

In reality, many individuals in positions of influence are deficient in one or more of the five kinds of minds discussed here.

 

Shrewd managers or leaders select people who already possess these minds. They then challenge their employees to maintain, sharpen and catalyze their capacities so teams can work together effectively and serve as role models for future recruits.

 

The critical questions to ask yourself are:

1.    With which of these minds do I already show strength?

2.    How can I improve my mental capabilities?

3.    Where can I stretch my abilities to enable growth?

4.    Which of these minds do I need to learn?

5.    Who in my organization can help mentor me?

  Howard Gardner: Five Minds for the Future [5 MINDS FOR THE FUTURE -OS]

Reciprocity in Tough Times

Are you putting the Law of Reciprocity to work for you?

Reciprocation flows from Divine Law that can neither be ignored or put aside. Perhaps, the most important of these laws is the 'law of love.'  Put simply, "Love is Law, Law is Love. God is Love, Love is God." This amounts to the same thing as "the gift of giving" without the "hope of reward or pay," or serving others.

This 'law of love' is identified in many different ways--for example, in Wayne Baker's new bestseller, "Achieving Success Through Social Capital" (Jossey-Bass), this law of love in the workplace is described as the "law of reciprocity."

The law of reciprocity is not what can best be described as "transactional reciprocity." Baker says that, "Many people conceive of their business dealings as spot market exchanges--value given for value received, period. Nothing more, nothing less. This tit-for-tat mode of operation can produce success, but it doesn't invoke the power of reciprocity and so fails to yield extraordinary success."

If you could do one thing for your customers, family or friends, what would that be?

How could you help people who are unemployed but want to work?

What is the power behind your business and social relationships?

What fuels social networks like FACEBOOK, MySpace, Twitter, Ning, etc.?

"One of the most potent of the weapons of influence around us is the rule for reciprocation. The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us."

Robert B. Cialdini, author of The Psychology of Persuasion (William Morrow, 1993)

Underprivileged Leadership

Today, the U.S. needs a few less-privileged leaders from Washington state to Washington, D.C. and Wall Street to Las Vegas.

Regressing from "adversity & craftsmanship" to "dexterity & speed"

The nineteenth century version of success stressed the value of compensating for disadvantage.  If you wanted to end up on top, the thinking went, it was better to start at the bottom, because it was there that you learned the discipline and motivation essential for success.

Andrew Carnegie insisted that there was an advantage to being "cradled, nursed and reared in the stimulating school of poverty."  According to Carnegie, "It is not from the sons of the millionaire or the noble that the world receives its teachers, its martyrs, its inventors, its statesmen, its poets or even its men of affairs.  It is from the cottage of the poor that all these spring."  He believed that poverty provided a better preparation for success than wealth did; that, at root, compensating for disadvantage was more useful, developmentally, than capitalizing on advantage.

In the 20th Century, human dexterity & speed was all that was needed to mass produce goods and services cheaper if not better.  Henry Ford's mass production of automobiles in Detroit attracted human bodies that could use their muscles with speed.  A high school graduate could easily land a well paying job in the automobile factory, using little brain power.  These factory workers would become the chief consumers of the cars, trucks and recreational vehicles produced.  Generations moved from high school to factory to retirement during this prosperous century....hardy ever having to use their brains.

Soulful Schooling

"Senior Honoring Ceremonies" are designed to celebrate each graduating senior--not just the few who have shown outstanding achievement in academics or athletics.

A vase filled with a variety of long-stemmed flowers sits in the center of a softly lit room.  The first circle of chairs holds a number of students and the teachers who will address them.  In the chairs behind them are parents and other faculty. 

After a welcome by the school principal, teachers go one at a time to the center of the circle, select a unique flower from the vase, and stand before a surprised and curious student.  One teacher begins: "I have watched you grow this last year and become strong like the sturdy stalk of this giant iris.  When you came into my class, I could tell that you were used to being one of the clowns.  Yet, when it came time to share our stories, you took the first risk.  You inspired all of us with the courage of your vulnerability.  I want to honor you for the warmth you brought to each of us and the initiative and courage you've shown.  I respect you as a leader and value you as a friend."

The young man beams.  His father, behind him, looks stunned.  This is his younger son--the cutup, the disappointment after the academic achiever who went before him, the one who has brought his father too many times to the disciplinary dean's office.  After listening to one of the most respected teachers in the school describe the outstanding gifts of character this boy has demonstrated in his final year of high school, the father's face is soft, tears glistening.  He places is hands on his son's broad shoulders.  One squeeze tells the boy that his father has heard, that he sees him in a new light.

In the father's eyes looms a key question: What went right?

The answer: At the heart of every adolescent experience is an exquisite opening to spirit--an awakening of energy when larger questions of meaning and purpose, of ultimate beginnings and endings, begin to press with both an urgency and a loneliness much too powerful to be dismissed as "hormones."  What went right is that this young man found experiences that nourished his spiritual development.

Source: SHIFT: At the frontiers of consciousness, June-August 2008

A Congressman of All Seasons

My congressman, John Dingell, has served in Congress for 52 years and if, there is anything that he has learned in his time in Washington, it's to call them as he sees them.

In his position, as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, he insists that today's great energy debate result in a bill that actually accomplishes something, and that its pain be borne by all Americans (rather than just his Detroit auto makers).

Americans have been up and down on the price and availability of gasoline since the mid-1800s.  The price of a barrel of oil, from time-to-time, spikes and then slowly goes down (at a faster rate than inflation) over time until it becomes too low and the oil producers spike it back up.  When the price is low and availability high, people buy bigger cars and trucks in the U.S.  When the price is higher, they begin to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles.  If the price of gasoline falls back to the $2.50 gallon range (which it will), most consumers will again demand big fuel-inefficient vehicles.  That's a huge problem for automotive manufacturers who haven't figured out how to forecast fuel price cycles.

What's the solution?

Take a look at European transportation patterns over the years.  Gasoline there has been highly taxed; forcing people to take mass rapid transit to their weekday workplaces while saving their private vehicle usage for weekend travel.

Mr. Dingell, the 81-year-old Dean of the House, argues for new energy taxes because higher energy prices are one of the few things that cause people to cut back consumption.  Taxes give policy makers more options in influencing behavior.  He uses the example of a gas tax.  "Why would I do that?  First of all, it means I can reduce the use of gasoline, and I can make it easier for CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) to work."  He also explains that it allows policy makers to "differentiate between fuels."  By taxing gasoline but not diesel, for instance, he hopes to get more people into diesel cars.  That would further reduce emissions, he argues, since diesel gets "about a 20% or 25% fuel benefit."

"People have got to understand that addressing the problem we have as the largest user of energy and emitter of greenhouse gases is not something that will exist without pain...It is ultimately going to evolve into a significant cost for everybody, and significant changes in lifestyle.  Nobody will put in too much, nobody too little, but nobody will get out of it," he predicts.

Source: The Weekend Interview with John Dingell, The Wall Street Journal, October 6-7, 2007

Developing a Moral Compass

While on our life journey, we each need an internal compass as a way to deal with tension and change both in business and in our lives.

Ethical sensitivity is a state of mind and needs to be developed.  As we work out our intangible assumptions/beliefs, values, vision and guiding principles, we will create better tangible business plans that will be tested by others; each test is an opportunity to learn and grow.

A new book, Living into Leadership by Bowen H. ("Buzz") McCoy (Stanford Business Books), tells us that if we don't intentionally choose ethical models, both personal and intellectual for our behavior, our journey will continually be subjected to the winds and tides of the moment.  When the good people are unwilling to speak out and be counted, the bad people drive the day.  Groups of individuals, organizations, and even society itself can be defined by their ethical code.

A problem is that most of us are not trained in ethics, nor are many of us exposed to deep ehtical discussions on a regular basis.  Business and economics education in general is oriented toward winning--maximizing profits, optimizing outcomes and prevailing over competition.  The emphasis on outcomes rather than values tends to create an impression that issues of ethics, spirituality or religion are inappropriate in a business situation.  As a former corporate executive, business owner and management consultant, I understand that in the business world, we don't speak much about the heart. Yet, since all businesses are ultimately people serving people, our life's work should come from the heart. Long after your products or services have been delivered, the feelings and knowledge shared during the business relationship remain.

A key task of a business leader is to get inside the ethical culture of the organization.  Individuals will be far more productive if they can align their personal values with those of the enterprise.  The most difficult challenge for a leader is to change that culture if appropriate, especially when the values are deeply entrenched.  Without having a core ethic in place, a leader cannot successfully create a valid ethic for the business and the employees who make the business work.

Click for ordering Living into Leadership: becoming a more effective leader                            

Enron's Legacy

The decisive convictions of former Enron leaders Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling put an exclamation point on a government crackdown on fraud--sparked by the energy giant's stunning 2001 collapse into bankruptcy.

Yet, wrongdoing hasn't vanished from the executive suite.  In 2005, 52 percent of employees surveyed by the nonprofit Ethics Resource Center said they had seen improper behavior on the job that year, about the same as in years past.  "The percentage of people who are interested in cheating is probably the same as 10,000 years ago," said Timothy Fort, business ethics professor at George Washington University.  "I don't think there's any fix for that."

But the crackdown that began with Enron's downfall has produced concrete results.  A White House task force on corporate fraud said it had garnered more than 1,000 guilty pleas and convictions since mid-2002, including those of 167 chief executives and corporate presidents.

More pressure has come as the result of public revulsion at the criminal excesses, which in turn prompted the passage of laws establishing new criminal penalties for stock fraud and 2002's Sarbanes-Oxley.  That law requires auditors to evaluate the internal controls at companies and increases executive accountability.  Such laws have changed the behavior of both executives and board members.

Source: The Los Angeles Times, May 25, 2006

Legacy of Enron's Inept Leaders

As the trial of Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling begins this week in Houston, the fallout from the demise of Enron is more than financial.  Lay and Skilling are heavily to blame for the inept management that led Enron, once America's seventh-largest company with 31,000 employees and a stock market value of $35 billion, into bankruptcy.  But the greatest legacy of these inept executives may be their social and ethical impact on future business leaders.

Research by the Center for Academic Integrity ("CAI"), a think tank affiliated with the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, shows that undergraduate business students do more cheating than just about anyone else. 

The survey of nearly 50,000 students at 69 schools found that 26% of business majors admitted to serious cheating on exams, and 54% admitted to cheating on written assignments, which includes plagiarism and poaching a friend's homework.  The results come from surveys conducted over the past three years by Donald McCabe, a management professor at Rutgers Business School and founder of CAI. 

McCabe says cheating has increased since he began doing surveys 15 years ago.  Technology makes it easier to cheat but he adds that a "disturbing" number of students use recent corporate and political scandals to justify their behavior.

Source: Helena Oh, BusinessWeek, February 6, 2006

Leadership Ethics

"The three greatest leaders of the 20th Century were Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.  If that's leadership, I want no part of it," said Peter Drucker, who died on November 11, 2005 at the age of 95.

Of 462 executives who were asked, "What characteristics are needed to be an effective leader today?" 56 percent ranked ethical behavior as an important characteristic, followed by sound judgment (51%) and being adaptable/flexible (47%). --Source: American Management Association, New York, NY

Effective leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.

Leadership is not just for people at the top. Everyone can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within each one of us to make a difference and being prepared when the call to lead comes.

Albert Einstein once said, "We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only serve."

"I'm most effective with one-on-one coaching. I would guess I coach 100 to 200 employees in a given month.  I don't really think you can do the kind of leadership I do on a formal basis.  It has to be genuine.  I don't think you can force a human connection." Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy

Leadership development is not an event.  It is a process of participating in respectful conversations where the leader recognizes his or her own feelings and those of others in building safe and trusting relationships.

For more on leadership, go to: www.LeadershipTips.info and www.WhatisLeadership.info 

Spiritual Scientists

America's scientists are a surprisingly spiritual group, according to a survey in which almost 70 percent agreed "there are basic truths" in religion, and 68 percent classified themselves as a "spiritual person."

"Science is often perceived as incompatible with religion and spirituality, but few have asked how scientists themselves think about religion," said study director Eliane Howard Ecklund, a sociologist at Rice University in Houston.  Overall, about a third said "I do not believe in God" in the analysis, which polled 1,646 scientists at 21 research universities across the nation.

The findings mirror a similar study of physicians released recently by the University of Chicago, which revealed 76 percent of the 2,000 doctors surveyed said they believed in God.  Physicists and biologists were the least spiritual--41 percent in both groups said they did not believe in God.   

University of Chicago researchers found that 59 percent believed in an afterlife, 90 percent attended religious services and 55 percent said their religious beliefs influenced how they practiced medicine.  "We did not think physicians were nearly this religious." said study author Dr. Farr Curlin.

Source: "Scientists' Spirituality Surprises" by Jennifer Harper, The Washington Post, August 15, 2005