…and 45% of College Professors Turn a Blind Eye To It!
Several years ago, I was preparing a presentation on business ethics for a local high school business class. Given the audience, I decided to see what the current mindset was among high school students around cheating – arguably a key indicator of ethical attitudes. The results, including those in the title, were shocking to me. Being a Visiting Professor myself at both undergraduate and graduate level, the toleration statistic was particularly galling.
What does this have to do with Leadership as a Way of Life? Everything! Not a week goes by I do not hear self-proclaimed statements about the positive ethical attitudes and behaviors of individuals and organizations. Given the statistics, which are from multiple studies within the last decade, I would argue this is a greater leadership challenge than we are readily admitting.
What is more concerning about the prevalence of cheating in college is the statistic revealing 85% of college students believe cheating is necessary to get ahead. I suspect it is driven by the “good grades are all that matter” attitude in high school to the “whatever it takes to get ahead” attitude seen in graduate school education. How many times have we heard ourselves say something like “just get it done” or “its all about getting results” without fully understanding the ethical implications? Is the pressure to meet leadership’s expectations turning the organization into a Machiavellian “the ends justify the means” culture? To further support the point for business, The Chronicle of Higher Education raised the point in a September 2006 article that business school students, both undergraduate and graduate level, were more apt to cheat than their non-business school counterparts. Those business school graduates may well be working for you as you read this newsletter!
So just how bad is this cheating epidemic? The November 2010 issue of The Chronicle for Higher Education ran an article written by a paid academic ghostwriter. The writer documents in clear detail writing papers for undergraduate, graduate and doctorate students. The writer completed papers for nursing students, seminary students and education administration students including papers for these groups dealing with ethical issues such as academic integrity! The worst part of the article is, to the writer’s knowledge, none of the students were ever caught. (Click here for online chat results with the ghostwriter).
You can argue, is the problem the cheater or the organization for poor enforcement? In truth, it is both. Leaders set expectations deeply rooted in their own core values as well as the values of the organization. Having core values implies both the leader and the organization enforce them with clear consequences for operating outside these values.
One of the most inspirational speakers I know, John Blumberg, speaks to this topic in his book Good to the Core. My favorite quote from the book is:
“We don’t go running away from our values. We go drifting away, and one day wake-up in a place we never meant to be, drifting in a direction we would have never chosen.”
As you reflect on your core values, are 85% of the recent college graduates in your circle of influence seeing you drift?
Lead Well!
Showing posts with label Ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethics. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
We Will Do That For You…
…Followed by a Firm Handshake.
One of my favorite gifts this past Christmas was a sculpture of a handshake, a gift from my sons. They know the handshake holds high value to me as a symbol of the right kind of leader to be. It is not an accident it is part of the RPC Leadership Associates brand. While difficult to trace the exact origin of the handshake, we can easily trace its origins back as far as medieval times when knights and royalty would shake as a gesture to let the other know there were no weapons present. In other words, it was a sign of trust. It is trust, which we as a culture continue to struggle with today.
We seldom go a day without seeing a headline or a story related to trust, typically a displayed lack of it. Whether in business, politics or sports names like Madoff, Blagojevich and Woods conjure up images of a broken trust between them and the relationships with the people who helped them succeed in the first place. So I believe it is here we should begin our discussion of trust by looking at what it means to have a meaningful relationship as a leader.
If we look at the buying process used by many in business for making a value based decision, we find it begins with the first thing people buy – you! It is through the strength of the relationship that starts the trust building process. Building trust is much like saving money in a piggy bank. Every moment of truth, every interaction with another person and every transaction in a relationship helps build the trust bank account. I heard it described recently as “we add trust to a relationship a nickel at a time, but we lose trust in that same relationship a dollar at a time”. If leaders are looking for trust in the relationships with their teams the first place they need to look is in the mirror. Are you the type of leader who is trustworthy? I spoke last month of the importance of self-awareness as the authentic leader’s greatest tool. This is crucial as it helps a leader’s ability to leverage candor and empathy as crucial elements to building trust. If people in an organization trust their leader as a person, they stand a much better chance of trusting their organization as a whole. A recent Gallup poll suggests only 30% of employees are fully engaged in their organization. What organization in this day and age can afford to have 30% engagement? Yet by disregarding the very elements that build trust within the culture of their organization, they may as well hang a sign outside their door stating “Employee Engagement Doesn’t Matter Here”.
Finally, a fitting quote from David Armistead I often use, “Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities for which they were previously unaware”. Are the trust levels in your organization high enough? Are you ready to discover new abilities to which you are now unaware? We will help you get there. Can we shake on that?
Lead Well.
Rick Lochner
One of my favorite gifts this past Christmas was a sculpture of a handshake, a gift from my sons. They know the handshake holds high value to me as a symbol of the right kind of leader to be. It is not an accident it is part of the RPC Leadership Associates brand. While difficult to trace the exact origin of the handshake, we can easily trace its origins back as far as medieval times when knights and royalty would shake as a gesture to let the other know there were no weapons present. In other words, it was a sign of trust. It is trust, which we as a culture continue to struggle with today.
We seldom go a day without seeing a headline or a story related to trust, typically a displayed lack of it. Whether in business, politics or sports names like Madoff, Blagojevich and Woods conjure up images of a broken trust between them and the relationships with the people who helped them succeed in the first place. So I believe it is here we should begin our discussion of trust by looking at what it means to have a meaningful relationship as a leader.
If we look at the buying process used by many in business for making a value based decision, we find it begins with the first thing people buy – you! It is through the strength of the relationship that starts the trust building process. Building trust is much like saving money in a piggy bank. Every moment of truth, every interaction with another person and every transaction in a relationship helps build the trust bank account. I heard it described recently as “we add trust to a relationship a nickel at a time, but we lose trust in that same relationship a dollar at a time”. If leaders are looking for trust in the relationships with their teams the first place they need to look is in the mirror. Are you the type of leader who is trustworthy? I spoke last month of the importance of self-awareness as the authentic leader’s greatest tool. This is crucial as it helps a leader’s ability to leverage candor and empathy as crucial elements to building trust. If people in an organization trust their leader as a person, they stand a much better chance of trusting their organization as a whole. A recent Gallup poll suggests only 30% of employees are fully engaged in their organization. What organization in this day and age can afford to have 30% engagement? Yet by disregarding the very elements that build trust within the culture of their organization, they may as well hang a sign outside their door stating “Employee Engagement Doesn’t Matter Here”.
Finally, a fitting quote from David Armistead I often use, “Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities for which they were previously unaware”. Are the trust levels in your organization high enough? Are you ready to discover new abilities to which you are now unaware? We will help you get there. Can we shake on that?
Lead Well.
Rick Lochner
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