Editor’s Top Choice:
By Stephen Paskoff of Workforce:
On July 30, the Wall Street Journal reported the following on a recent meeting of the New York Fed:
Thomas Baxter, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the New York Fed, stressed at the outset of his remarks that he was only speaking for himself, but he pointedly critiqued company culture, saying that if a firm’s values don’t support the rules used to guide employee behavior, the organization ‘is headed for troubled territory.’
Baxter is right on the money. His statement applies not only to banking but also to other types of businesses. NAVEX Global recently released a survey reporting that most compliance officers have shifted to transforming culture as opposed to simply – and it is relatively simple – educating employees on applicable regulations. This is a welcome development. Unfortunately, it’s happening a little too late for organizations like General Motors and the Veterans Administration. Read more
Other Featured Picks of the Week
5 Ethical Responsibilities of Corporate Boards
From MarketWatch:
Most corporate boards have learned to act quickly when a scandal breaks. General Motors’ board is moving much more quickly to clean up the fallout from its vehicles’ ignition failures than Toyota’s board did to address its rapid acceleration problems of several years ago. It is now the rare board that doesn’t launch an independent investigation quickly when misbehavior is reported.
But the responsibility of the board to prevent scandals is more important than the responsibility to clean up the mess once it has emerged. Here most boards are still at the starting gate.
Recent legislation and guidance embodied in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines clearly require the board to take a key role in preventing ethics failures before they happened. This is more complicated than calling in the outside lawyers once disaster happens. Read more
Pepsi CEO’s Emphasis on Ethics Pays Off
From Business Management Daily:
Leaders can give long lectures about ethics. But the real test occurs in quiet moments when employees decide whether to do what’s right.
How can a CEO influence such decisions? By emphasizing the importance of ethics, especially when it’s easy to give in to temptation.
For over a century, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have competed for market share. Both beverages contain a syrup recipe that’s a heavily guarded trade secret.
Steve Reinemund, Pepsi’s former CEO, recalls an incident in which his counterpart at Coca-Cola called out of the blue. Coke’s CEO thanked Reinemund for his actions, but Reinemund had no idea what that meant.
Digging for information, Reinemund discovered that a rogue employee at Coke sought to sabotage his employer by stealing a product ingredient list and mailing it to Pepsi. When an administrative aide at Pepsi opened the letter, she recognized its intent and immediately resealed it and sent it to Coke’s general counsel. Read more
7 Proven Ways to Genuinely Connect with Your Employees
Peter Economy of Inc. writes, “What kind of difference would it make for your company to get every one of your employees excited about solving problems, making recommendations, expressing their new ideas, and taking care of your customers?
Every company today needs employees who are enthusiastic and who bring the very best of themselves to work. Companies need this not just from top performers but from every employee, every day, in order just to be competitive and survive, let alone thrive. The single element that distinguishes one company from another more than anything else is its people and the effort they exert.
The secret to unlocking this unlimited source of energy for your company is to build and strengthen the bonds between you and your employees. When you trust and respect your people–and really connect with them–they will respond with commitment and enthusiasm.”Read more
Spend the Company’s Money Like It’s Your Own
From Rob Asghar, of Forbes, “’Most people have zero awareness of what business overhead looks like,’ startup executive Erin Robbins O’Brien tells me. ‘They say, I want to buy this, I want to expense that–and then they’re surprised that there isn’t a lot of money left over for higher salaries and raises’
O’Brien, chief operating officer at GinzaMetrics for the past two years, is a frequent brainstorming partner of mine on the thornier issues of management that get little airplay in the worlds of leadership training and theory. She’s the no-nonsense person I often turn to for candor and common sense.
O’Brien’s philosophy is simple. ‘If everyone treated company money like it was their own,’ she says, ‘I believe both businesses and their teams would be better off.’
No doubt. Consider all the ways in which we thoughtlessly, remorselessly run up our company’s bills.” Read more
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