Organizations with a strong safety culture never tell their employees that they must comply with safety measures to avoid government penalties. Instead, they speak of the importance of everyone returning to their families every night in good health.
Yet, when it comes to corruption, most organizations wave the latest billion-dollar fine in front of their employees as if avoiding such fines was the driver for honest behavior. Would they not care if the fines were smaller?
Ethical leaders tell their followers “People like us don’t cheat, lie, or steal. We win the right way, on the merit of our products and services. Others can trust us because we perform with integrity, always.”
Lazy managers use scare tactics. Ethical leaders inspire principled performance.
The Ethical Leader 