Ethics

Breaking the rules, just this once

June 12, 2013
If you stick to your ethics 10 out of 10 times, you won’t regret where you end up. The challenge is in defining for yourself where you stand, and drawing a clear line.

3 signs of an ethical apocalypse

August 28, 2012

Watch out for these ways your moral judgment can be hijacked: 1. You lie to yourself. 2. You rationalize. 3. You disengage.

Recovering from reputation damage

July 9, 2012
Scott Thompson was ousted by Yahoo after the company found that Thompson had lied about his credentials. Was a résumé fib a big deal or a little one? Leadership blogger Wally Bock insists that a CEO should be held to the highest standards, and fudging on a résumé is hardly an unintentional act.

Vanguard’s case study in judgment calls

April 20, 2012
Mabel Yu was a fairly low-level em­­ployee at Vanguard. But in 2009, Vanguard named Yu its analyst of the year. Here’s why.

With power comes responsibility

November 11, 2011
Oscar-winning actor Cliff Robertson lived the kind of leadership he portrayed as Peter Parker’s uncle in “Spiderman” delivering the line that gave “Spiderman” its moral heft: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Ethical leaders go above & beyond

August 13, 2010

As an executive in the financial services industry for more than 40 years, Bob MacDonald noticed that too often, job applicants looked at ethics as nothing more than a set of rules. They would meet the minimum ethical standard just to get by. So he founded Old MacDonald’s Ethical Leadership Farm to teach children that ethical people do the right things even when they aren’t required.

Deepwater disaster: Who’s in charge?

July 9, 2010
Heads-up when you hear arguments about who’s in charge. That means no one’s in charge … The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April points to more than a pile of ad hoc exceptions to safety rules. It also points to an epic failure of leadership. Who was in charge: BP, the well’s owner, or Transocean, the rig’s owner?

Why we need an MBA oath

June 14, 2010
You may have heard about the MBA oath. It was created by a couple of Harvard Business School students and has spread to business school campuses around the world, leading to a book on the topic. If the MBA oath were to cause even a few leaders to stand up and say out loud how they intend to conduct themselves, then it would be worth the effort of writing and promoting it.

Raise your game the right way

February 12, 2010

In this second year of high anxiety, here are three ideas you can use as a leader to gain some altitude so you won’t be bumping along the bottom: 1. Do the numbers. 2. Take a walk on the workers’ side. 3. Consult your moral compass.

Putting your beliefs to the test

December 11, 2009

When put to the test, leaders do what’s right, even if it’s difficult. For longtime environmentalist, Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia, the test came in 1994, when he learned that industrially farmed cotton, which figured in 20% of the company’s sales, required toxic chemicals …