Are “Heroes” Entitled To Bad Behavior? Best Buy Ethics, by Kathleen Edmond.
Recently, we had a situation in a store that posed an interesting cultural challenge. The specifics of the story are not important but, suffice to say, we had an employee who was lauded as a “hero” by Best Buy and held in extremely high regard by her peers and leaders. Unfortunately, she was later implicated in a theft ring within the company and terminated along with several other employees.
The theft, it should be noted, was completely unrelated to her prior heroic deeds. It was simply a case of one employee embodying both the absolute best and worst of our company values at different points in time. The whole episode was rather disappointing, as you might imagine. Although this specific incident occurred in a store outside the U.S., the same thing could, and has, occurred in various locations across the enterprise. My questions for you:
1) Once someone attains “hero” status, can they lose that perception and the goodwill that comes with it?
2) Should a heroic employee receive a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card, so to speak, and be entitled to behave badly after the fact? Why or why not?
3) Conversely, should heroes be held to a higher ethical standard going forward than “normal” people? Please explain.
4) Have you ever observed a similar situation where you work? If so, how did your workplace culture respond? Did the culture grant him/her a Get Out Of Jail Free pass or go the other direction and offer less grace than would normally be expected?
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!