Are Ethics Profitable?
Dr. David Rafeedie
Some of you may remember the 1972 hit song, "If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right." The song is about a married man having an affair with another woman. If we wanted to move this into our business and professional life, we could change the lyrics to read, "If being unethical is working, I don't want to be right." For example, suppose you are a close observer of some of our national politicians (you don't really need to observe that closely). In that case, you might say ethics are irrelevant to success if you are accomplishing what you want to achieve. Did I write that out loud?! It's not my fault!
That ends justify the means thinking says more about one's character rather than what it says about one's business acumen. People are drawn to businesses and people they can trust. If ten people have the skills people are looking for, they will do business with the one they trust. Ask any successful mechanic or doctor.
The dictionary defines ethics as "moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity."
They also govern a company's behavior. Your core values express the ethics you live and work within and determine how we interact with our clients and customers. When a consistent set of ethics governs our lives and work, it lends credibility to our leadership and inspires our teams and stakeholders. In addition, it is one way a company can distinguish itself from its competitors.
Being honest, valuing doing what is right instead of convenient, empathy toward stakeholders, and other ethics reveal integrity that people are drawn to and respect.
Here are three questions to answer that will help you determine some critical characteristics:
Do our ethics shift when it is convenient to ignore them? Measure the answer on a scale of 1 – 10 (one being always, ten being never)?
How do our ethics govern our behavior?
What do we have to adjust to be more consistent?
In their book, Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, Kouzes and Posner (James M. Kouzes, 2011) list affirming shared values as one of the six disciplines they list for sustaining credibility. I will add that confirming them and ensuring you apply them is essential for enhancing and cementing stakeholder loyalty.
The Tip: Living by a set of ethics is profitable because your integrity will inspire and attract all your internal and external stakeholders.