The Ethics Advantage #83: Thanksgiving, transformation, and cultural triage

If you want real loyalty, you have to earn it. Then you won't have to worry about your people expending their effort looking busy rather than being productive.

Gratitude begins with recognizing the good and remembering that we aren't entitled to anything. Life, and all the makes living worthwhile, is a gift.

Relationships require investment. Skimp on what you put in and you won't get much back. But give give your all, and you will reap much more than you sow.

In this issue:

• The Ethical Lexicon 80
• The Gift of Gratitude
• Ethical empowerment

Enjoy!

🥷Let’s face it: In a world spinning at light speed, who has time to wait for real results to determine progress, productivity, or success? It’s no surprise that we’ve become increasingly dependent on benchmarks and short-term goals.

And, by doing so, we’ve created a vicious circle in which we rely on incomplete data to project hypothetical results, then base our decisions on those projections to produce more unreliable data.

What should be obvious is that the less sound our systems of evaluation, the easier it is for unethical or unmotivated players to game those systems.

The question employees need to ask themselves is this: What do I want from my job? Do I want to collect a paycheck by exerting minimal effort, or do I want to utilize my potential by contributing to a worthwhile enterprise?

And the question employers need to ask themselves becomes: Am I providing an environment in which my employees see themselves as partners in a higher mission so they feel driven to devote themselves to our collective success?

Enjoy my column in Fast Company:

🥷In our age of entitlement, indulgence, and instant gratification, the very concept of appreciation has all but disappeared. Our choice of candidates in the recent elections evidenced our unwillingness to appreciate that the choices we make have real consequences. The continued spate of irrational exuberance, impotent rage, and crippling bitterness ignited by the election results evidence our inability to appreciate that we have to deal with reality when it arrives.

Perhaps the Founding Fathers anticipated some of this when they fixed our national elections in the first week of November. With the holiday of Thanksgiving already an established tradition throughout New England, the Framers might have recognized the holiday as an ideal curative for restoring perspective in the aftermath of toxic political battles.

Of course, that’s only works if we remind ourselves that, once upon a time, Thanksgiving Day was about more than turkey and football.

Read on:

🥷Success emerges as the natural byproduct of culture. And culture is built on a foundation of ethics.

It's always gratifying when this message lands. Like water to a fish, it's so obvious that we frequently overlook it.

That's why I'm so pleased to have been interviewed by Jennifer Dublino, senior writer for Business.com, in her recent article on transforming workplace culture.

In this piece she offers five tips:

1. When changing workplace culture, consider individual employees.
2. Make the right hiring and firing decisions to enhance cultural health.
3. Set short-term goals for planning change.
4. Listen to employees to chart a course forward.
5. Follow through with promises to achieve and maintain cultural wellbeing.

Of course, these are just the bullet points. Read Jennifer's article for a thoughtful discussion on how to implement this advice to earn loyalty and foster productivity and workplace wellness.

And don't miss the most important observations -- in my thoroughly biased opinion:

Yonason Goldson, director of Ethical Imperatives, LLC, advised prioritizing character over skills when hiring. “Ethical people are competent and capable,” Goldson explained. “They will learn to do what needs to be done.”

Goldson also emphasized the importance of providing proper training, mentorship and support: “Invest in your people, and they will repay you many times over.”

Empowering the employees you hire is equally essential. “Give them responsibility to make decisions,” Goldson recommended. “When employees feel trusted, they will work hard to earn and keep that trust.”

Please click to read the full article:

#ethics #culture #leadership #accountability #mindset