HBR Management Tip of the Day

To Uphold Ethical Standards in Your Organization, Have Honest Conversations

Every good leader has to balance getting the job done while upholding ethical standards, and the deeper you get into your career, the more challenging this can become. Living up to your ethical ambitions requires honest conversations - with yourself, your leadership team, and those you lead. First turn inwards. Write down key decisions you made in your life (for example, your career choice) and then ask yourself what motivated these decisions and what they say about you. Be honest about what matters to you and where your ethics lie. With that clarity in mind, next, ask your senior team to have a frank discussion. What are their aspirations for the kind of company they want to create? Together, craft an ethics mission statement that you and your team will live by, and hold others accountable to. Third, be proactive about sharing and reinforcing this statement — in other words, don’t wait for a whistleblower to surprise you. Schedule routine conversations to check-in with your team to ensure that you’re all living up to your collective ethics, and address any possible breaches early, swiftly, and honestly.

This tip is adapted from?“How to Be a Leader Who Stays True to Their Ethics,”?by Michael Beer