Four “myths” of the culture that challenge our ethics!

Over the years, speaking and training with many clients and doing substantial research, I have come to identify four overwhelming “myths” of our culture that are touted as values. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but is meant to start the conversation about what else may need to be added.

The four myths are:

1.        Pain:

This culture is trying to tell us that “pain” must be avoided at all costs and at may price. Pain isn’t all bad is it? Are we not in the preventive maintenance mode? If your car is not running right, isn’t an alternator cheaper than an engine? If your body is not feeling right, isn’t going to a doctor now, better than waiting a year when it might be more expensive and life threatening?

2.        Happiness:

If your goal is to be “happy” in life you may up a miserable human being. Will Rogers once said: “If you want to be happy you need to do three things:, believe, know, and love what you do and you will be happy. Happiness, then is a journey not an end result.”

3.       Being “Me oriented .”

This stems from the belief of many that self esteem is solely wrapped up in how much money one makes. This is a lie! Self esteem is my perception of myself in relationship to the world, not the world’s perception of me. If someone doesn’t like you for who or what you really are, it’s not your problem. No one can make you feel anything without your permission. Don’t give it to them.

4.        Competition:

When winning isn’t the only thing, it’s everything, we have  serious moral dilemmas, much less legal dilemmas. How bad do you want to win? At any cost? Look at sports as an example. When was the last time there was an Olympics without steroid charges; how about Lance Armstrong; Wall Street execs; Banking issues? How bad? Any price?

Hope this triggers further insights and examples.

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!