How to Protect Your Team from Ethical Burnout

Welcome back to the Compliance Corner?? newsletter. And if we haven’t met yet, thank you for joining me! You can learn a little more about me and my work here, and by watching this short video.

As promised, I won’t top-off anyone’s inbox ?? more than once a month, and it’s been a while since my last newsletter in July, so looking forward to catching up and we do have some fun and engaging news in this edition ??

Recent Publications

So let’s get started: Is your team heading towards ethical burnout ???

That’s what that road-sign on a running ?? trail here in Tuscany ????? reminded me of, when I had to make a decision on which path to choose.?

With heartfelt ?? thanks to co-authors Dina Denham Smith and Ron Carucci , it's a pleasure and honor to have this article published in the Harvard Business Review , here.?

You might be thinking ?? "no way" but as we share, "ethical burnout often begins with what looks like benign stressors. And that’s the best time to confront them head-on."

So there's no time like now ?, when we are in an environment of stress and uncertainty, to check in with your team as to identify and address what we describe as "ethical fatigue." ???

We hope you will read the article for the four signs and mitigating strategies.?

And there were a number of professionals who helped to inform this article, sharing their experiences and perspectives. A few whom I would like to personally thank include:?

Alison Hinds-Pearl , Jamila Jean , Andrew Jacobs , Laura Martino , Michael Thomann MSL, CPA, CCEP , Lenny Izzo , Amy Hanan , Benjamin van Rooij , and Ty Francis MBE, CCEP .?

And of course, special thanks to Dorie Clark for starting my writing ??? journey ??

Also, appreciation to Talib Uz Zaman, CCEP-I, CCL for his summary of the article here.

On a more personal note, having struggled with a hearing impairment for decades, I wrote this article, which was premium featured in Fast Company , asking:?

“Does hearing loss at work need to be a veritable minefield of stress and anxiety?”

As both a heartfelt ?? and practical piece, I hope you might take the time to read it here,? and think about how you can create a communication environment that is inclusive and a ‘level playing field’ for everyone, including those with hearing challenges. If there are any steps you have taken at your workplace to foster such an environment,? I hope you will share them in the comments for everyone to consider.

The Culture and Compliance Podcast Series!?

Join Ropes & Gray LLP Partner Amanda Raad (Co-Chair of the Anti-Corruption and International Risk Practice, and Co-Lead of R&G Insights Lab), Nitish Upadhyaya (Director of Behavioral Insights) and Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC for our latest podcast ?? with Ropes and Gray partner (and Co-Chair of their Anti-Corruption and International Risk Practice) Ryan Rohlfsen on:

Myth-busting The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) ??

It was so informative to 'deep dive' and 'myth bust' about what FEPA means not only as an enforcement tool- but the implications for ethics and compliance teams ??. We also tried to solve the conundrum concerning pronunciation: At the very least, if you listen in, you get to learn whether it's pronounced FEE-pah or FEH-pah...??

As always, we keep our podcasts to about 30 minutes ? knowing everyone is busy, so we hope you can join us here.

The podcast is? available on Apple, Spotify or wherever else you listen ?? to your content.

Thanks to the Ropes & Gray LLP team for the opportunity to co-host this monthly series including Eric Gaudet , Partner, Sean Seelinger , Taylor Mindreb? Wolcott , Jeremy Miller , Kristina Kazerani , and Janet Wigren among so many others.

And stay tuned for future episodes with upcoming guests including Stephanie Niven and Tal M. Freilich, CCEP-I .?

Upcoming Events:

Having met Umut Turan, CCEP-I , (Corporate Compliance Group Coordinator SOCAR Türkiye , Board Member Etik ve ?tibar Derne?i (TE?D) - Ethics and Reputation Society (TEID) ), at the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) European Compliance Institute in Amsterdam ????- well, one conversation led to another and now?I’m so excited to be joining him next month at the 11th International Ethics Summit on October 8th in Istanbul ????. The full day conference is titled, “Navigating the Ethical Horizons" and the event page can be found here.

I am also looking forward to all the panels, including the one with Vanessa Hans , Head of Private Sector, Basel Institute on Governance , who I met at the IACC in Lithuania ????.

I would also like to thank the TEID team of Bahar Karacar and Neslihan Yakal for all their support ? And if you want to go right to the registration page, the link ?? is here.?

After Turkey ????-? I will be heading to Dubai ???? for some client work, so feel free to DM or email me if you are up for a ‘compliance coffee’ ? while I am in town.?

I will also be re-joining the 25th Annual Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Ethics and Compliance Congress in Washington DC (October 28-30, 2024). The entire event, including the registration page can be found here.

I am honored to share a panel with Mara Senn , Gary Del Vecchio , and Meredith Auten on “Best Practices in Investigations ??." I hope you can join us there, and it will be great to meet up with so many of my life science friends. Also, special thanks to Cynthia Bongiovanni and Peter N. Grant - they are such a pleasure to work with and thank you for the invitation to return to the congress.

Also, for those in the Middle East, please follow the Middle East & Africa Compliance Association , as well as their newsletter “The Ethical Explorer ???” here, with a shout-out to Stephan Lutz CAMS, CFE, .

We have a number of events planned, not only in the UAE but we will be heading to Saudi Arabia ???? along with Ronald Machen , Partner, WilmerHale , who was also the US Attorney for Washington DC during my case, so no more spoiler alerts ?? other than thanking? Elvis Angyiembe and Tomell deSilva Ceasar for bringing this dream to life?

The SCCE CEI?

As shared in the last newsletter,?it was such a pleasure to share time with the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) Chief Engagement & Strategy Officer Adam Turteltaub CCEP, CHC at the IACC in Lithuania. Adam and I have been lucky enough to exchange perspectives during conferences hosted in Beijing ???? and Dubai ???? ? (in addition to SCCE events, most recently in Amsterdam ).?In Vilnius, we had the chance to talk about the upcoming SCCE Compliance and Ethics Institute (CEI) in Grapevine, Texas (September 22-25).

The agenda reflects the issues and challenges most relevant to compliance practitioners today, with sessions spanning 11 different learning tracks and featuring topics such as artificial intelligence, global ESG considerations, the push for diversity, governance and board responsibilities, and much more.

Lunch with Juliana?

I recently had the chance to catch up with Juliana Rodrigues , VP & Global ?? Chief Compliance Officer, Coty , over an Omakase ?? lunch at New York’s Sushi Nakazawa.

And what prompted my reaching out to Juliana to catch up (not that I needed a reason) was a recent post of hers about being a part of a program at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, so here are a few questions I asked Juliana between servings.

Q: Juliana, on LinkedIn you recently posted that you have started studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology for the Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing Masters course. That seems like a long way from compliance, can you share more?

I know that at first sight it does seem like a long way to go and almost like a waste of time and effort, but I believe that a compliance professional should always start by knowing the details of the business and industry you work for. Of course, I have been educating myself about the beauty industry for the past six years,? but I felt that now was to time to do a formal deep dive into the marketing and product development fields – I strongly believe that this masters will allow me to become a true expert in the industry and consolidate my already strong partnership with all relevant business today at my current role.

Q: Do you think it’s important for compliance leaders to gain experience in other parts of the business, and if so, why?

I believe having experience in your field is fundamental – if you don’t know the technical aspects of the industry you work for you cannot understand and apply the laws, regulations and policies with fairness. I cannot treat a soyabean exporter the same way I treat a big retailer and for one good reason only: they belong to different universes. What one does might be completely compliant with rules and regulations - but if the same behavior is conducted by the second, maybe we could be facing a compliance issue - and you will only know the difference if you know the industry and the best practices applicable for each.

Q: What do you hope to get out of the course and what are you most curious about?

I hope to understand the theory that leads to all marketing insights and also equip myself to understand the trends for the near future. I will be working side by side with peers from all leading beauty companies in the world and I cannot wait for the positive brainstorming about how we will all impact the industry in the next few years, including the compliance environment for beauty companies globally.

??Q: When do you start, and what are you most excited about?

I cannot say how happy I am to literally be back to school – it has been almost? decade since I finished my LLM at UC Davis – I believe the FIT experience will be different in every angle of what I learned so far – it is a new world ?? for me and I cannot wait to start my new academic life.

Also close to home (in Connecticut), it was great to have a coffee ? with Nita Drakatos, VOICE OVER ACTOR . Nita had a major and exciting change in her compliance career when she started to share her passion for voiceover work. I am proud to share that I was one of Nita’s first clients, when she narrated a number of vignettes as part of my Compliance Corner series here.?

If your organization is in the need of voiceover work from a true professional, who is an absolute pleasure ???? ???? to work with, I highly recommend you contact Nita here on her very cool ?? website.

Well, that is all for now, and wishing everyone all the best. Thank you for reading this edition of the Compliance Corner?? newsletter. I hope you found it helpful (fun) and engaging. Here are some ways to access further perspectives, tips, and resources:

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