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The “Coffee and Naps” School of Business Ethics Training All caught up? Good, because for today’s post, I’ve promised you the fun stuff. We’ve talked about the deliverables of an effective business ethics training program, and today we’ll dive into each one. There are a number of pieces that come together to make an end-to-end business ethics training system. The emphasis in that sentence was on system – a successful ethics program isn’t just a one-time event. Let’s look at the components of your business ethics training system. Read more Other Featured Picks of the Week Naphtali Hoff for SmartBlog on Leadership: I remember the comment as if it were yesterday. As a high-school teacher living in Chicago, I had been invited to a school weekend “spirit” event for students and faculty at an area hotel. The facility sat on a sprawling property, and its layout was unconventional, to say the least, which made navigation from one place to another a bit challenging. At one point, I pointed the group that I was with in the wrong direction before someone realized the error. Not too pleased with his incompetent navigator, a colleague’s spouse quipped, “At least you weren’t tasked to lead the Jews in the desert.” Let’s just say that I felt very un-Moses-like at the moment. We noted in a recent post that leadership is the product of multiple factors, not the least of which is influence. Leaders understand that their role, whether formal or informal, is to influence others towards a desired outcome. But how can leaders know the proper way to direct those that they seek to influence? How can they be sure that they have set along the correct path, particularly when there appears to be more than one viable way forward? And how will they know that they have arrived at their destination? One of the most common and successful approaches to leading others is to lead from values. Values are the core components of a person’s deepest beliefs, the concepts that they hold most dear and that drive decision making, or at least should. When a leader takes the time to identify her deepest values, she is likelier to make satisfying choices and remain consistent in her actions and choices. Moreover, if she is effective in articulating her values, then others will understand her reasoning and, more often than not, be more inclined to support her process.Read more Building Trust: What to weed out Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading in Context, “I was weeding in the garden this week, and I discovered two new weeds that were taller than I was. I started thinking about how quickly things can get away from us, in the garden and in our organizations. There are actions we must take to build a high trust workplace. But there are equally important things that we must prevent or weed out for trust to flourish. What are the things that can get away from us if not corrected quickly? What can damage the trust we have worked so hard to build? What do we need to weed out for trust to flourish?”Read more 7 Things great leaders know about bad performers From Bill Murphy Jr. at Inc., “How do great leaders treat their teams’ worst performers? I’ve been thinking about this question in the wake of the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years as a prisoner of the Taliban. Since his release, critics (including some soldiers from his unit) allege that he deserted. Some say he should face a court-martial, or that we we shouldn’t have traded as much for him as we did. None of us knows the full facts in this case. However, even if the worst that critics say turns out to be true, the United States was absolutely right to have worked to bring him home. Great leaders recognize that the way you deal with everyone on your team–even the least-effective performers–says more about you than it does about them. Here are seven reasons why great leaders should treat even their worst performers fairly.” Read more Manager’s Checkup: Test your on-the-job ethics From Business Management Daily: “In both large and small ways, we expect our teams to behave ethically. That’s the easy part; the hard part is knowing how to respond to the many ethical questions and challenges we face. Match your skills with the experts’ by taking this true-or-false quiz.” Read more If you are not yet a subscriber to the weekly business ethics email, click here to sign up for the free news and information delivered to you weekly. |