The Linda Fisher Thornton Edition

I was looking at the blogs I subscribe to, yesterday and came across “Leading in Context” which has a really sophisticated looking logo. (It made me wish I had one – it was that good.) Anyway, I was struck by the August 17th blog post entitled – Ready To Change the Ethics Quo (For Good)? In this post, Linda Fisher Thornton lists three recommended changes to “the Ethics Quo” and lists them as follows.

1. EXPECT MORE FROM SENIOR LEADERS: Think of several examples of senior leaders who were coached, penalized or fired for ethical violations. If you can’t think of any, does that mean your organization prevents problems or lets senior leader infractions slide by? Always hold senior leaders to the highest standards since they model what others throughout the organization should do.
2. HAVE ALL LEADERS MODEL AND REWARD ETHICAL ACTIONS: Keeping in mind corporate ethics policies and company values, examine what leaders are making important by their actions.  What are they doing? What are they holding people accountable for? Make sure that ethical decisions and actions are modeled and rewarded.
3. SEE YOUR CEO AS THE “ULTIMATE ETHICS OFFICER”: Take a careful look at who is responsible for ethics in your organization. Is it just the compliance officer and HR Manager? It is the CEO and 1 or 2 other managers? Or is it every manager and every associate? Make sure that everyone is responsible, and be sure that the CEO is actively playing the role of the “Ultimate Ethics Officer.”

She followed up on August the 31st with a Part 2, listing three more recommended changes.

1. BE DEEPLY COMMITTED TO DOING GOOD: Take a hard look at the positive impact your organization is having in the communities you serve. Does the total impact say “deeply committed to doing good” or “trying to appear good?” Move toward “deeply committed to doing good” with intention.
2. MAKE COMMUNITY SERVICE PART OF YOUR DAY TO DAY MISSION: Identify at least one important way that you are improving the communities you serve. If we stopped associates on the way in to work, would they all know what it is? If not, start the conversation and make the commitment today.
3. COMMIT TO OFFERING SINCERE MUTUAL BENEFIT – FOR ASSOCIATES, COMMUNITIES & THE ORGANIZATION: Does the way you are improving communities also benefit your associates? Do they find meaning in volunteering their service and do you support them doing that during paid work hours? If not, make the financial commitment that backs the message and shows you care about associate AND communities.

She plans a third installment with some more rules. I’ll try to come back to this post and add those when she does.

I was impressed by the posts. Seldom do I attempt to create rules for businesses to use and not many of my colleagues try that either. But she jumps in and gives some structure to business decision making and I applaud her efforts.

Now, as usual, when I am quoting from another blog. I want you, my dear reader to visit the original blog, “Leading in Context,” and read the full article. In this case, don’t just read the article but look around the blog. The writing is in chunks, designed in the context of the overall design to give you a certain kind of business experience, very sophisticated.

As always, Share, Subscribe and Like!

James Pilant

Here is some more about Linda Fisher Thornton –

Linda Fisher Thornton – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/LeadinginContext

And this is her video on ethical lenses as applied internationally.

We Need to Make Decisions Like Global Citizens – YouTube