Reprinted from the 2016 September/October Issue
Written by Paul P. Jesep
What would you do if a colleague or senior leader sat in on a teleconference call and directed subordinates, including you, not to mention to those on the other end that he or she was listening? My guess, many reading this column have experienced some variation of this unethical conduct.
There are ways organizations can limit the impact of problematic employees, who seem acceptable when hired, from negatively effecting the culture. Start paying attention to subtle signs.
The person not wanting to be identified on the teleconference is telling you everything you need to know about their integrity and character. I’ve experienced it several times in my career and these individuals, sometimes high performing in a few areas, are causing destruction behind the scenes, discovered after they’ve left the organization. There is clean up after a quiet hurricane.
If you become aware of a certain incident, it’s probably a red flag, discretely monitor the person’s activities. It’s good to be proactive to contain and repair any damage to the organization’s environment sooner than later.
One critical consideration often overlooked in business planning is making sure someone doesn’t have too many areas of influence. Power can be a corrupting force even in a non-political setting. Too much responsibility entrusted in the wrong person is particularly problematic in small to mid-sized organizations. If you accord someone a great deal of responsibility, be sure there is a succession plan should he or she leave or needs to be terminated.
Another factor overlooked is not knowing how key staff do their job. Again, the organization becomes overly dependent on the individual because no one knows how or what they do to make things happen. If you have a succession plan, this is not relevant. But sometimes there are reasons one doesn’t exist. Know what the person is doing in the absence of a succession plan.
If the person is abusive toward others in some way, allowances are likely to be made. Risk of lawsuits sky rocket and morale plummets.
I’ve often told colleagues in senior management that should I miraculously wake one morning with a deep, rich Wagnerian voice to enable me to sing Tristan or the Ring at Bayreuth and the Metropolitan Opera, I’d be gone.
If I were to sign a contract with the MET or Bayreuth tomorrow, my work is well documented and the organization can easily move on without me. At this moment someone could walk into my office and pull a binder off the shelf and see what has been done. It’s also on the shared corporate computer drive.
I passionately believe everything I’ve tried to do for my organization is about its mission and never about me. No organization should be dependent on any individual. Every self-confident professional should want to leave a legacy. The most important legacy includes having the inner strength to put the organization’s values and mission first by creating a track record. If someone seems indispensable because you don’t know how he or she does his or her job, there’s a problem.
In addition, before you hire or promote someone, find out what makes them tick. Take them to lunch and watch how the person treats the wait staff. Observe how he or she greets someone in maintenance when walking the halls. It may not relate directly to the job, but these behaviors can be very telling. Sometimes it’s all in the subtleties.
People may look good on paper, but don’t assume they have the personality, temperament, or sense of self to be high performers or even minimally competent without toxifying the organization’s culture.
In spring, a federal auditor examining my organization’s compliance program, developed with the benefit of my colleagues, described me as “pathologically ethical.” Of course she meant it as compliment, though I have to wonder since the auditor had an extensive background in behavioral health. Maybe it’s best not to over analyze.
She may have given me more credit than I deserved. We all have an ethical threshold – a point where having a mortgage, paying for day services for an elderly parent, or the son or daughter’s college tuition would, albeit reluctantly, enable complacency. The threshold to confront an issue in the workplace or put food on the table will be a moral and ethical dilemma.
Life is rarely black and white. Organizational politics is not black and white.
Let’s face it. You wouldn’t be human if you were never inclined to overlook the bad behavior of a colleague. Many have been in this situation.
I’m someone who takes the world as it is, not as I want it, and attempt to make incremental changes when and where I can. If a board of directors, for example, is disengaged and complacent and the CEO has run amuck, I’m not going to expect much.
Attempting to be a crusading Don Quixote chasing windmills is something I gave up long ago. I will, however, be strategic in bringing about incremental change which hopefully will build momentum over time to better organizational culture. If I can’t do it, it’s time to move on.
Bringing positive change often involves paying attention to subtle clues of someone before and after they’re hired. It can be a critical tool in safeguarding an ethical culture. Consider it a type of “Ethical Risk Assessment.” Ethics will always have a human face.
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