DOING THE RIGHT THING

Having always taken the view that you always ‘do the right thing’ that’s just how I was brought up I guess. But I now wonder, have we lost the ability to ‘Do the right thing’ have we thrown the morals and ethics out the window??

?

I keep coming across instances and situations that shake my confidence in mankind. Whether it’s the contaminated blood scandal or the post office scandal or just little injustices in business and relationships.

As I get older, I see more instances of people ‘NOT’ doing the right thing and getting away with it.

Is it that I’m just more aware of these things as I get older, and they always happened or is NOT doing the right thing that is just becoming more prevalent and more acceptable?

?

Here is a little story, based on a real situation that happened a few years ago, I would love to get your view as to what is right and acceptable and what’s not?

?

Let’s call the characters in this little story Bob and Pete.

Bob knew that Pete wanted to buy a house in the village but every time a place came up it ended in a massive bidding war between the buyers. Bob thought that Pete was a good guy someone that he could trust and that would make a good neighbour. Bob also knew that his elderly neighbour was looking to sell his house and the house came with a couple of grazing fields (12 Acres) behind the two houses.

Bob said that he would introduce Pete to his neighbor and pursued him to work with Pete so he could offer a fair price and not end up in a bidding war with other potential buyers. He agreed with Pete that, if he was successful in acquiring the house he would sell the two-acre field that backed onto the back of Bob’s house, they shook on the deal, not doing a formal contract.

?

Bob then arranged an introduction for Pete with his elderly neighbor and Pete subsequently bought the house quietly from the elderly neighbor for a fair price avoiding a bidding war, and everyone was happy and Pete became Bob’s neighbor.

?

Bob then asked Pete to sell the two-acre field to him that backed on to the back of his house, as they had agreed.

But Pete said that he would not sell Bob the field as it was part of the house and curtilage that he had just bought. Even when Bob pressed Pete to sell him the field for a fair price as they had agreed, Pete said that he would not sell the field to Bob.

?

Bob was confused, frustrated and angry, he had invited someone to become his new neighbor and in effect greased the wheels for him to acquire the house using his long-term relationship with his elderly neighbor. It allowed Pete to acquire the house next door and become Bob’s new neighbor and probably saved him a large chunk of money avoiding a bidding war.? Pete as it turned out was someone he could not trust and was obviously someone that would do anything to get what he wanted regardless of the cost to other people.

?

Bob had wanted the field at the back of his house to compliment his own house and could have arranged to buy it from his elderly neighbor, but he trusted Pete to sell it to him after he bought the house. Pete’s attitude was it’s just good business and he had never intended to sell the field to Bob.

Bob and his family ended up selling their house and moved out of the area, they found a nice place with a ten-acre field. Why, primarily because he did not want to live next to a low life scumbag like Pete.

?

So here is the question:-

Should Pete have sold the two-acre field to Bob and done the honorable thing, done the right thing?

Or

Was Bob stupid for trusting Pete on a handshake and as Pete said it’s just good business and anything goes to get what you want.

?

Comments and views in the comments please.

?

?

????????

???????? About the Author

Howard Longstaff has over 20 years of experience delivering people within the talent acquisition arena. Having worked extensively across the UK, Europe, USA, and Canada.

Over the years he has specialised in two fundamental areas, the first area he has a real passion for is ‘building Sales Teams’.? The second area he loves getting involved in, is the leadership team, the C-Suite, helping to get the balance right, covering the gaps in knowledge, and back filling these roles as companies grow.

‘Getting it right first time’ is never easy, Howard is one of the few, executive search consultants who is willing to guarantee the work he does, offering a 12 months free replacement.

‘No one is perfect, but a team can be’, working with SaaS startups, SEM’s and Mid-Market clients who are scaling up. In most cases we work in either an exclusive or retained basis and are typically engaged for a 3–5-year period, sometimes much longer.

Howard is someone that uses technology to enhance the hiring process, to save time, money and effort. Taking the pain out of the process, we operate a ‘Private Client Video Portal’ keeping everything together & secure, candidate videos, as well as the psychometric behavioural assessments on each candidate and executive profiles. He has repeatedly built teams across three continents, has a good breadth of knowledge across the talent acquisition arena.

[email protected]? +44 (0) 7710 907 988

?

?

?

?

?