Stewardship needs to be a key focus of any ethics initiative. Yet, there are so many different definitions of stewardship so it’s hard to keep a focus.For the sake of conversation, here’s one that makes sense to me.
Stewardship is what you do after you say you believe. Stewardship is consistency in action, not a theory or a platitude. For example:
• You believe in your mission statement, how do you act?
• You believe in your values statement, how do you do act?
• You believe the Golden Rule, how do you act?
Stewardship needs to be seen and embraced as integral to ethics and ethical behavior ,in that it is all about the how and why we consistently treat each other.
The basis of stewardship is whether you have truly integrated values, morals and ethics into your life, professional and personal. If those values, etc, of your personal and professional life are in conflict, there is no true stewardship.
Stewardship, true stewardship, to be really effective needs to have an in depth alignment of both personal and professional lives and values.
How does this happen? Good question. Here’ an answer. We need to start, in earnest, teaching people a process of thinking ethically, thinking not based on subjective reasoning or past experiences.
The process of thinking ethically, can be” work”, but needs to be a key component of who we are to be a true steward.
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!
