Show Me!

As leaders we must show our staff and team members what we expect from them. Written guidelines are nothing if we do not do as we say. Ethics are often handled by establishing published rules and guidelines, which in some organizations can be the basis for disciplinary action. They are worse than useless if leaders are not scrupulous in demonstrating the foundational principles. Hypocrisy is the greatest disincentive.

Some examples:

• Work Life Balance is often trumpeted by organizations looking to recruit and retain staff. If the leaders of the organization work 12 hours a day every day of the week, ambitious individuals will understand that long work hours are the price of advancement. Everyone else will apply this disconnect to every corporate rule.
• Not conducting personal activities on work equipment and during working hours is essential to organizational efficiency. With the wide use of electronic communications, leaders must model healthy practices. If the organization expects to contact their staff at any time day or night, the message is that personal and work hours are interchangeable.
• Innovation is desired by all organizations - so leaders must communicate their own bright ideas and highlight the ideas of others. At the same time, there must be good communications on how ideas are handled. Perhaps a Twitter approach could be used to let everyone express their ideas and to identify the most popular ones, which would then be developed for implementation. Excessive bureaucracy kills innovation.