I recently saw a post on the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) Discussion board on LinkedIn that asked:

What is the most important leadership core value?

See if you see the recurring word...some of the responses were:
• Accountability and Respect
• Integrity and a positive outlook
• It's all the above and knowledge, transparency, ability to motivate and clear communication skills.
• A high degree of self-confidence, integrity, transparency and emotional intelligence
• "Character" is the foundation of any true leader
• Trust.
• Integrity and Trust
• A Visionary with the ability to drive Engagement - I assume integrity and Character are fundamental expectations.
• Commitment, trust and communication
• Accountability, authenticity, respect, professionalism and transparency.
• I think it’s the Team Spirited attitude!
• Respect and trust
• For me the most important value is Empathy. To be able to understand someone enough to appreciate their actions and aspirations and to empathize with their situation is a tremendous skill.
• Concern for people; Being Human
• I don't think you can limit it to one value or characteristics. Effective leaders attract and motivate followers who work to achieve a shared goal. To do that, you need passion for the goal, at least some baseline level of IQ and EQ, and adaptability.
• Building trust with his followers, empowerment, alignment of his vision with business strategy, talent development capability, effective coaching ability and succession feedback.
• Learning Agility
• Honesty. It's not the most exciting, but it is fundamental for all the other building blocks.
• Integrity. Without integrity as a core value, the other values won't have the same ability to provide leadership.
• Honesty, Integrity, and Accountability

Does INTEGRITY depend on how ETHICAL you are?

Phyllis Wilson--founder and president of 3am Strategies & Consulting in Houston, Texas, professional speaker, author, seminar leader and consultant-- has extensive experience as a business development analyst and strategic planner. Phyllis provides corporations, government, and universities with workshops and seminars in business ethics and diversity.

I believe you should be able to see what the ethical issues are in this topic. A big hedge fund, Paulson & Co., wanted to bet against the housing market. It talked to Goldman about putting together a Collateralized debt obligations (CDO)full of mortgage-related assets that Paulson thought were likely to lose value. A CDO is a structured asset-backed security (such as mortgages) whose value and payments are derived from a portfolio of fixed-income underlying assetsPaulson's plan was to bet against the CDO, so it would profit if the CDO lost value.

Just thought you might want to know!

Phyllis Wilson--founder and president of 3am Strategies & Consulting in Houston, Texas, professional speaker, author, seminar leader and consultant-- has extensive experience as a business development analyst and strategic planner. Phyllis provides corporations, government, and universities with workshops and seminars in business ethics and diversity.

I love to see article like this as it shows that people are interested in Doing the Right Thing and companies want to help!

Ethics Web site set up for city employees

A new Web site aims to help Philadelphia city employees better understand ethics. At www.phila.gov/integrityworks, users can find information on city policies and get answers to questions such as whether a Philadelphia employee can use the Jersey Shore home of a city vendor. (The answer is no; employees must decline the invitation in writing and provide a copy to the city inspector general.) - April 10th, Philadelphia Inquirer

Phyllis Wilson--founder and president of 3am Strategies & Consulting in Houston, Texas, professional speaker, author, seminar leader and consultant-- has extensive experience as a business development analyst and strategic planner. Phyllis provides corporations, government, and universities with workshops and seminars in business ethics and diversity.

Values are the rules by which we make decisions about right and wrong, should and shouldn't, good and bad.

Morals have a greater social element to values and are far more about good and bad than other values. We thus judge others more strongly on morals than values. A person can be described as immoral, yet there is no word for them not following values.

Ethics however can refer to professional ethics, but you seldom hear about professional morals. Ethics tend to be a set of rules which are explicitly adopted by a group of people. Thus you have medical ethics. Ethics are thus internally defined and adopted, whilst morals tend to be externally imposed on other people.

If you accuse someone of being unethical, it is equivalent of calling them unprofessional and may well be taken as a significant insult and perceived more personally than if you called them immoral.

Do we understand the difference between the values, morals and ethics of the other person? Are your ethics, values and morals aligned or different?

Phyllis Wilson--founder and president of 3am Strategies & Consulting in Houston, Texas, professional speaker, author, seminar leader and consultant-- has extensive experience as a business development analyst and strategic planner. Phyllis provides corporations, government, and universities with workshops and seminars in business ethics and diversity.

“What’s in it for me?”
“This will destroy the competition.”
“We didn’t have this conversation.”
“This is a ‘non-meeting.’”
“It sounds too good to be true.”
“Everyone does it.”
“Shred that document.”
“It’s all for a good cause.”
“We can hide it.”
“No one will get hurt.”
“Well, maybe just this once.”
“I deserve it.”
“It doesn’t matter how it gets done as long as it gets done.”

You can probably think of many more phrases that raise warning flags. If you find yourself using any of these expressions make sure you hurry and get on solid ethical ground.

When in Doubt, Ask Yourself…

“Why is this bothering me?”
“Are my actions legal?”
“Am I being fair and honest?”
“How will it look in the newspaper?”
“How will I sleep tonight?”
“What would I tell my child to do?”
“How would I feel if my family, friends, and neighbors knew what I was doing?”
“Does my supervisor know?”
“What do others think?”
“How will I feel about myself afterwards?”

Phyllis Wilson--founder and president of 3am Strategies & Consulting in Houston, Texas, professional speaker, author, seminar leader and consultant-- has extensive experience as a business development analyst and strategic planner. Phyllis provides corporations, government, and universities with workshops and seminars in business ethics and diversity.