Archive for Ethics
Leadership and Emotional Pollution
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Did you ever throw a paper cup on the ground and walk away? The women who read this blog would not think to do that. The cup would find a home in a trash can.
And, if you look down and there is a candy wrapper lying on the pavement, do you pick it up and throw it in a waste basket? Most likely you would take the moment to help clean up the area.
So, why do we walk past unpleasant situations, unpleasant people and just keep going? And, sadly, there are also times we add to the difficulties with our comments and critiques and more “junk” is left in the room.
It’s time to look emotional pollution in the eye and start a campaign against toxic patterned behavior spills.
Saying “no” to divisiveness, to gossip, to office politics is an important step to cleaning up this invisible environment that pollutes as much as leaving trash on the floor.
Think about it for a moment. When someone tells you a “juicy tidbit” about a colleague how do you respond? Do you simply say “uh huh” and walk on? Do you ask for details and add “I knew she couldn’t be trusted?” Do you go to another colleague and say “Wait till you here this?”
Are Your Rules Made To Be Broken?
Posted by: | CommentsBlog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing
Sometimes the rules and regulations that are created are so ridiculous that it seems that they can’t possibly have been designed to follow. It makes you wonder if some rules really were just meant to be broken, even in our own businesses. Last week I was on a flight from Detroit to Chicago. There was a line of thunderstorms moving through Chicago so we boarded our plane in Detroit and then waited on the tarmac for a clearing in the weather before taking off. Then, after about 2 hours of waiting for a break in the weather we got the good news. The storms were passing and in 1 hour (that’s good news, really) we were slotted for takeoff. With 15 minutes left before our takeoff time, however, we headed back to the gate. What!?! Passengers were furious. Many were going to miss connections in Chicago if we didn’t take off soon.
The Detrimental Business Relationship: Are You Putting Yourself at Risk?
Posted by: | CommentsBlog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing
It is enticing to take on new clients quickly that seem to have everything that you want, especially the willingness and ability to buy. But what if, in your haste to sign on this great new client, you don’t properly assess how this person will act as a client (it goes the same for business partners, alliances, and friends). Have you taken into consideration not only your short-term benefits, but also the long lasting impact this relationship could carry on you and your company?
All clients are not created equal. All people are not either. You find out all you need to know about a person, client, business associate or “friend” when a stressful situation causes emotions to take over common sense. The question is – how can you fast track the time it takes to figure these things out so another person’s actions and reactions don’t become detrimental? The answer – the signs are there, you just have to look for them. The person with a big ego is harmless unless that ego is turned against you. The friend who cheats on his taxes is ignored until that person cheats you out of something. And the client who discusses run-ins with other service organizations will likely have one with you too. The signs are there. It pays to take a step back and evaluate whom you associate with before you enter into any agreements or take on new clients. I have seen too much trouble occur to good people who naively thought it would never happen to them.
Is your business Opaque or Transparent?
Posted by: | CommentsNews of yet another possible meltdown on Wall Street in the U.S. is enough to make me yell ‘oh my gosh!’ And ask the question: why can’t businesses realize that transparency is the preferred dressing and not opacity?
In the art world, where I live some of my time, there is an easy test for transparency that I’ve used in teaching beginning painting students…it works for both acrylics and watercolor paints. I tell my students to never assume a color is transparent until it is tested. Here’s what you do:
- on a piece of white paper, in the center, draw a thick line using a black Sharpie pen [Sharpie is my brand choice because it dries almost immediately and it is waterproof]
- take a color of your paint, like red, and brush some across the black line
If you can see the black line through the paint…you have transparency; if you can’t see the black line, the color is opaque. To further test this, if the red paint proved to indeed be transparent, add some white to it and test again. I think you’ll find that now the new mixture is opaque. Adding white not only tints a color it makes it opaque.
Leadership Work vs. “Women’s Work”
Posted by: | CommentsThe balance score card to measures a society is graded by how its leaders set policy for caring; for children, the sick, the elderly, and the poor.
If I were asked to grade our country I’m saddened to say the marks would not get us into Harvard.
What is missing? For me it boils down to the relationship aspect of how we care for each other. Remember the name of Hilary Clinton’s book “It Takes a Village”? Intuitively we know that to be true, yet we are such a judging and blaming culture that we forget the basic tenants of caring.
Every woman knows that our young need tender love and care. Yet, why are so many kids created with lack of thinking about the outcome of unprotected sexual activity and then put into poorly thought through day care centers?
Why does our healthcare system often resemble factories right out of an early twentieth century production line with practitioners seemingly standing at a conveyor belt shouting out “Next”?
The thought of aging in this society is harrowing. So many end up in nursing homes like some I have visited, where old people are strapped in sitting positions in their chairs, often drugged to stay quiet, waiting for the grim reaper to come get them.
Bold Leadership
Posted by: | CommentsThere are so many words to describe leadership and almost all point to action; leaders, the best leaders, act.
This sounds so right, so intuitively right; yet, my question is about what is the right action? How do we know, how do we ever know if what we do when we act is going to be of benefit, going to move our lives, personally and professionally in the direction of success?
In our leadership development program I have posed these questions over and over. What is interesting is that the answers I get in the first session are far different than the responses that come about in the fourth and last session of the program.
First session answers are about taking the action needed in the moment, almost always considering short term gains. Will there be more value add for the customer, will there be a better price point for the salespeople to leverage the product, and so on?
What happens from these appropriate, yet in my estimation short sighted answers is that everyone in the program spends the next two sessions looking at business, at leadership, at life from a systems perspective. That changes the rules of the game every time.
Nonprofit Boards and the Public Trust
Posted by: | CommentsWomen invited to serve on a charitable organization’s Board of Directors are often uncertain whom exactly they serve. The Chairman? The Board as an entity? The Executive Director? The Donors? No, it’s the public.
Allen C. Amason, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Strategic Management at the Terry College of Business of the University of Georgia teaches a “Roles & Responsibilities for Non-Profit Boards” class in which he illustrates this point as follows:
In the United States, most people and all corporations pay taxes (well, at least technically they all do), except when they are a tax-exempt charitable organization, a so-called 501 [c] 3. Because these corporations do not pay their share of the taxes the government needs for its operations, the rest of us – the public – have to make up the difference. So, we rely on the directors of nonprofits to make sure our tax dollars are well spent. How do they do this? By assuring us, of course, that the organization adheres to its mission and uses its resources wisely, but more simply even by serving without pay.
When We Become Leaders: Happy Ever After??
Posted by: | CommentsThere is a great image I once saw of someone climbing the ladder of success only to find it was attached to the wrong building; at the top were broken windows and a roof that needed replacing. It’s not always the way we think it will be.
I was reminded of that when I was telling my five year-old grand-daughter a new rendition of Cinderella. Life is not always as we expect it to be. Arielle requested a story that would be about her heroine, Cinderella, after she had married the prince.
I looked down at the pair of UGG boots I had just taken off, sitting near the door and the story just flowed. Cinderella was bored with her position, all pomp and no power. She decided she wanted to go hiking in the cold winter and came back from shopping with a new pair of UGG’s.
The prince shrugged, he was too busy with the state of the state to bother with fashion. However, the queen was furious that Cinderella wanted to wear such cumbersome shoes. I was just about to have Cinderella succumb to the queen’s demands to return the UGG’s. I was curious to see how my granddaughter would react, when she chirped up with “its okay grand mom, she should keep the shoes, after all it’s her body and she can wear whatever she wants!”
Women Leaders and Male Partnership
Posted by: | CommentsIn any learning process, there is a tendency to go to extremes before finding middle ground. Take driving, for example. Most teens start by driving very, very slowly, learning when to accelerate and when to put the brakes on. Then there is a time when we all want to experiment with speed, until either fender hits fender, or a ticket is handed by an unsmiling policeman.
Most of us then find the safe space of the middle ground where fast and slow are dependent on the territory.
So it is with all relationships. Sometimes a hug is perfectly timed, in other situations a metaphorical “right to the jaw” is called for. In all partnerships, all life happenings, it is all in the timing.
Margaret Thatcher was a woman leader who had a great sense of timing. She was strong and gracious. She entered the territory of male domination early on and set the stage for women to follow, to learn the art of push and pull.
Work for a Jerk?
Posted by: | CommentsAt one point or another, we have all worked for a jerk. Trending analysis, client feedback and underground communication clearly indicate that mismanaged employees and boundary violations are on the rise. Managing through tough times and poor leaders is often time more difficult than the work itself. Poor leadership can range from an immediate supervisor to poor HR leadership. Noone is exempt.
Taking charge of your career and disengaging from negative forces, including a jerk of a boss is within your reach. As a Career Strategist with an organic and practiced track record of problem solving, I am focusing this weeks blog on the employee relations aspect of managing poor leadership, self preservation and maintaining your sanity.
5 Strategies to Activate NOW
#1 Document…Document…Document
Venting is short lived whereas documenting is soothing, has long range positive effects and will set you up for a chronicle of events if you need to take legal action.. Hand write your discontent in a strategy journal. This is a journal specifically dedicated to you, your work, your accomplishments and your discontent. Keep it is a safe place and use it daily. Date, time stamp and openly journal details of what is occurring. Always be sure to credit yourself for one or two accomplishments per writing. When leadership is lacking, you need to start truly leading yourself. This means crediting your daily accomplishments and cheering for yourself!
