50 years ago, some corporations started to see the benefits of providing ethics & compliance training.
20 years ago, some E&C professionals became early adopters of online training.
10 years ago, other early adopters moved their E&C policies, training and communications to mobile computing.
All of them faced resistance when they attempted to take the leap. Their bold moves have now become traditional approaches.
We need new trailblazers.
Why not you?
The fraud triangle shows how inflicting emotional or financial pressure on employees can cause them to break the rules.
What makes any level of pressure worse is the failure of management to remove obstacles preventing employees to do their work.
Employees who can’t meet their goals because management is not willing to remove obstacles will choose one of the following paths:
A good question for team leaders to ask is: “What obstacles can I remove for you today?”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll do as I say.”
A few generations ago, this was a common threat issued to children by parents. It was effective because it appealed to the child’s self-interest. No nagging. No pleading. No argument about good or bad. Children immediately understood the practical benefits of changing their behavior.
No one would recommend replicating this practice with adults in the workplace today. But the concept of appealing to our employees’ self-interest when promoting ethics and compliance still has merit. We have safety policies because we want our employees to go home safely every night. We provide training and implement controls so that they don’t inadvertently break the rules and lose their job. We ask them to promote organizational integrity because it gives them access to the resources they need to be successful.
Our job as E&C professionals is to protect the organization and its employees. Their wellbeing is closely connected. If we can show this connection (not pontificate), we are more likely to get compliance.
Just like ordinary people spend time watching TV instead of exercising, ethics and compliance professionals spend time on things that matter least.
There is so much to do. So many tasks that are difficult. So many colleagues that should be involved but aren’t available. And it is so uncomfortable to admit that we can’t handle it on our own.
So we turn our attention to the easy and less important. We reply to emails that could wait. We sign up for yet another conference about training best practices. We prepare PowerPoint slides when a bulleted email would suffice. We keep busy. We look busy. We plan our defense. Meanwhile, the threat board doesn’t clear.
And just like ordinary people eventually wake up fat and sick, we wake up with a crisis on our hands.
What will you work on today?
Most of what we think and do is unnecessary.
This is true of our personal and professional lives.
For ethics and compliance professionals, there can be dire consequences if we spend time on unnecessary tasks while the risks are mounting.
It should be part of our daily ritual to look at our tasks and projects and to ask, as Marcus Aurelius exhorted, “Is this one of the unnecessary things?”
Good salespeople focus their efforts on those who are willing to buy. They don’t try to sell to the unsellable. Enough people want an iPhone, no need to waste time with the Samsung devotees.
Years ago, I wanted to change how we were doing ethics training in my organization. At the time, we were requiring all of our our employees to complete four online ethics courses per calendar year. Not surprisingly, most employees completed the training between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
This was a business unit that was growing rapidly by acquisition and I wanted acquired employees to be exposed to our ethical culture more quickly and consistently. My proposal was to require one online course per quarter. I knew that the C-level functional leader who could make this happen was unsellable on this idea. So I went to someone else in the C-suite who I knew was willing to buy. Within days, we had the greenlight from the President.
As ethics and compliance professionals, we must constantly sell new ideas in response to our ever-changing risk landscape. Just in the last decade, among other changes, the rise of social media called for new policies, mobile technologies made it possible to extend online training and big data supercharged audits and investigations. But not everyone is willing to buy new practices and fewer still are early adopters.
To be most effective, we must start with those willing to buy.
Most people are good and will do the right thing in ordinary times.
Meanwhile, most people will compromise their standards given enough pressure to do so. To expect something different is foolish.
We must be able to hold these two seemingly contradictory ideas in our mind at all times – when we write our policies, create our training, implement our controls, conduct our investigations and when we hire, compensate, promote and discipline.
And we must accept responsibility when things go wrong. Either we failed to properly guard against them or we foolishly expected them not to happen.
Today, make a list of all the tasks you accomplish as an ethics & compliance professional.
When the day is done, review your list. At least one task, if not all of them, will have brought value to one or more of the employees you serve.
Share that.
Share that with your E&C colleagues, on your blog, on your organization’s intranet, with a professional organization like the ECI, on Twitter, on LinkedIn.
Anywhere.
But share.
This is a time when we need to see more examples of trust, respect and integrity.
In the workplace and beyond.
The best salespeople are the ones who truly believe in what they are selling.
They know that what they have to offer brings value to someone else. They are not really selling. They are serving. Those who buy are thankful for the opportunity to buy.
As ethics & compliance professionals, are we selling or serving? Does it fell like we have to cram our policies down the throat of the business or are they coming to us for help? Do we truly believe in what we are selling? Are we able to demonstrate the value of our offerings? Does the business think it would be better off without us?
It’s worth asking this last question to your business people once in awhile. Most will answer no and point to something you do that is truly enabling.
That’s your common ground. That’s the place you need not sell because you are serving.
Start your expansion there.
This day in 1901, Gustave Whitehead is said to have made the first successful powered flight, two years before the Wright brothers.
Today, there is still controversy among enthusiasts but for people boarding a flight, this is not top of mind. They want to go safely and quickly from point A to point B, regardless of who flew first more than a hundred years ago.
And so it goes of our work. We may care deeply about our role as E&C professionals, we may toil at crafting policies and training and controls, but the average employee we serve doesn’t give it much thought. They want to enjoy meaningful work and grow in the process.
It’s OK if we are invisible to them. They can feel our work.
The Ethical Leader 