Have you ever had a great idea and thought “My boss will never go for that?”
It should not be the end of your great idea.
Maybe your boss is not the right person to put it to, so put it to someone else.
Maybe you are not the right person to bring it to your boss, so ask someone else to bring it to her.
Or maybe someone other than you should bring it to someone other than your boss.
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Harry S. Truman
Why do we do what we do?
What drives us to become ethics and compliance professionals? How does a person navigate the first 25 or 35 years of their life to land on this path?
Let’s be honest. Compliance work is difficult work. Where does the fire in our belly come from that makes us want to do this? Is it because we have a love for rules? Is it because we are crushed as the sight of injustice?
Some of us seek virtue, knowing that it will lead to order, fairness and justice. We long for significance through honest connections with others. Those connections reduce our existential angst. We give of ourselves out of a selfish drive to matter.
We become social animals so that we don’t die while we are living. The same desire leads others to become doctors, educators, firefighters, farmers, actors or soldiers. Like us, they find meaning in purpose, and happiness in the pure joy of the work.
Meanwhile, others run away from their existential angst by seeking immediate rewards that are, at best, external to their work and, at worst, obtained through cheating, lying and stealing. They don’t enjoy the work. They are unhappy and wasting their life.
Why do we do what we do?
I met with a few relatives yesterday.
We hadn’t seen each other in over a year. We were all vaccinated. We met outdoors. Many of us were wearing masks.
Several times I heard one person ask another: “Can I hug you?”
I question that meant “I’ve missed you,” “You mean a lot to me,” “I’m so glad to see you,” “I haven’t hugged anyone is such a long time.”
A question that also meant “I’m not going to assume that you are OK with me hugging you.”
One relative picked up on that last meaning and reflected out loud “Perhaps we should have been asking this question all along.”
If you are different,
It means I am different too.
No one is to blame.
Everyone knows to have a rainy day fund.
Yet, few people have one, despite the fact that cars break down, roofs leak, and pandemics hit.
Today I listened to this story of a businessman and it reminded me of the responsibility businesses have to build rainy day funds. After 22 years in business, this man was unable to pay his business rent the first month of the pandemic. Since then, he has borrowed $130K to keep his business open and had to scrap his retirement plans.
A personal rainy day fund is a responsibility we have to protect our families. A business rainy day fund is a responsibility we have to protect our employees, suppliers and customers.
If you don’t have one, start one today. If you do have one, make sure it can cover one year of expenses.
It will rain again.
NASA announced yesterday that asteroid Apophis will not strike the Earth for at least another 100 years. That’s good news, given that the impact we had feared for 2036 could have killed more than 10 million people. The question is, will we prepare for an eventual impact?
The last time we lost tens of millions of humans on the planet, it was 100 years ago, during the pandemic of 1918. We knew it was going to happen again, but we didn’t really prepare for it.
Near-term catastrophes seem to light a fire under our chairs, but far-away ones leave us apathetic.
For publicly traded companies, the next quarterly earnings report is the near-term catastrophe. For politicians, the next election is the near-term catastrophe. For NGOs, the next round of funding is the near-term catastrophe. All resources are marshaled to avoid an impact. Few resources, if any, are allocated to preparing for the 100-year events.
And so today we see pandemics and social injustice.
And so tomorrow we will se water shortages, and food shortages, and natural disasters caused by climate change.
Prepare for impact.
Our heart can contain just so much fear and anger.
When it overflows, violence pours out.
Hurtful words are said. Fists are thrown. Guns are fired.
We can legislate speech, actions and guns, but it won’t stop the violence.
Let our daily work be the removal of fear and anger, wherever they are found.
HT to JC Glick
We are what we repeatedly do.
My morning routine is a window into my personal philosophy.
I wake up early to enjoy an hour of silence and be free of distractions before the family wakes up. I meditate to be in the present moment and to learn how to stay this way throughout the day. I ready Stoic philosophy and decide where I will apply it during the coming day. I write in my journal to clarify my thoughts. I read success literature to eliminate waste in my life and to adopt better habits. Then, feeling well armed against the world, I read the news and try to understand it through the lenses built of my morning routine. When all this is done, I’ll attempt to write a post on this blog.
This routine prepares me for the real work of life: walking alongside others. My family, my friends, my colleagues, my community. None of it is easy. Despite this daily routine, I make daily mistakes. But the mistakes would be greater without this practice.
No two people will have the same routine. What works for me won’t work for anyone else. But all of us can build a practice that seeks to make us 1% better every day. Better for those we serve, both at home and at work.
Managers often overlook a key question during performance reviews: do you think you could contribute and grow more in a different company?
It’s a difficult question to ask. There needs to be a high level of trust in place. But if an employee feels that we have always wanted what was best for them, they will answer truthfully.
We can help most employees grow within our own organization, but some will only reach their full potential outside of it. “Losing” an employee this way should not be seen as a failure. In fact, it’s a grand gesture of faith and trust.
When I was about 10 years old, a neighbor of mine had a picture of an overweight woman on her fridge, cut out from a magazine. She told me it served as a reminder not to overeat.
Some 20 years later, I read about a study that found that people who put pictures of lean and strong bodies on their fridge are healthier than those who look at overweight bodies. The first group can see that there is still work to be done and the fridge stays closed. The second group feels like they are not “as bad” as what they see on the picture, so surely they can have another helping.
Similar studies have shown the negative effects of companies repeatedly sharing with employees the wrongdoing of other employees. When the company newsletter features other employees cheating, lying and stealing, month after month, it has the effect of normalizing the behavior. And if the monthly examples are of a serious nature, employees considering lessor offenses almost feel good that they are not “as bad” as these other employees.
Meanwhile, when companies share stories of employees doing the right thing, they are showing everyone else what the expected behavior is, which often leads to a healthier company.
There is probably room for both types of stories. But just like happily married people extend 5 kind gestures to their spouse for every unkind one, I would recommend a healthy dose of good stories for every bad one.
The Ethical Leader 