Attitudes of leaders about ethics are a real concern!

As I work with compliance professionals, and with ongoing research on leaders’ attitudes about ethics and the importance of “pure” ethics training, I share these leadership “attitudes” with my comments.
1. Leaders believe it is easy to be ethical.
– If it’s so easy, why isn’t everyone ethical?
– What makes one think it’s easy?
2. Leaders believe that ethics is more about religion then management or leadership.
– Does one need to be religious to be ethical? I think not!
– What does “being religious” really mean to these leaders?
3. Leaders hire only ethical people, so further ethics training us not needed.
– I would love to know what criteria would a leader use to hire “only ethical people?”
– Doesn’t the “ing” in training mean continual and ongoing?
4. Ethics is best left up to academics.
– There is a role for academics, but do they have the tools, applications, business strategies, etc, to really develop lasting ethical behavior? Usually not. Like anything else, you get what you pay for!
5. Ethics cannot be managed.
– What in life can be managed?? Like in life, ethics is about odds!
– The clearer the vision, the path, the approach for ethics that are reinforced and supported by the leaders help make the decisions clearer.
6. Leaders believe that being compliant is the same as being ethical.
– Where did that come from? Compliance is not ethics, ask any compliance professional.
– – This attitude is a “cop out” to refrain from substantive ethics training.
7. Leaders believe that unethical behavior is just due to a few “bad apples.”
– This is the belief that rocked Wall Street, the Catholic Church, Professional Sports, the Military, and Congress! Look at the damage done by a few “bad apples.”
These seven “attitudes”, in my opinion., are all money motivated as ethics is seen as another expense not really needed or important.

fbucaro

Like you, business ethics and ethical leadership expert, Frank Bucaro has seen the challenges and problems of corporate leadership, particularly over the past few years in regards to poor decision-making, SEC violations, and record breaking financial settlements in a number of different industries. With over two decades of executive training, speaking, writing and with real life experiences, his view and approach to ethics in the workplace is uniquely different. He emphasizes that ethics is a moment-to-moment choice and has little to do with position, titles, personalities or education. Ethics is everybody’s responsibility from the top down. His goal is to help organizations to: a. Strengthen their ethics training initiatives in order to significantly decrease the odds of an ethical/compliance violation. b. Energize, train and motivate employees to understand the value of consistent “high road” behavior as a business advantage. c. Support individuals and thereby the organization by contributing to its success by quality, ongoing values based leadership development. Frank is known for his very practical, slightly irreverent, yet somewhat humorous approach to ethics and leadership development. His conversational style and real life stories connect with his audience in a personal, intense and practical level. Companies such as Bayer Healthcare, BP, ReMax International, EnMax Energy, Danone, etc. have partnered with Frank when they want to proactively stress the message, tools, insights and practical applications that good ethics IS good for business!