A leader cannot create a values-driven culture with rules and mission statements alone. Using techniques such as pre-scripting, rehearsal and peer coaching, leaders can learn to listen and employees can learn to speak. The result is a circle of practice that removes values from the realm of aspiration and positions them squarely within the realm of everyday business. Readers will learn how to create such a circle in this article
Recent events have contributed to an ever-growing cynicism and even a sense of futility about the values and ethics of global business institutions. We have seen, for example, the creation and marketing of investment vehicles allegedly designed to fail, so that those in the know could short them; the knowing disregard of credit-worthiness requirements by banks and mortgage brokers; the practice of “cooking the books” over long time periods until seemingly solid and successful businesses collapse under the weight of their own false information, and the prioritizing the importance of time and financial pressures over safety requirements in the mining and extractive industries.
Choreographing the Dance
This perhaps counter-intuitive approach grew out of interviews with managers who had, in fact, successfully voiced and acted on their ethical values in the workplace. It was found that the individual who saw him or herself as aggressive viewed enacting values as a more assertive position, while the individual who saw him or herself as fearful viewed voicing values as a less risky stance. They worked with their self-concept instead of against it. Instead of thinking they had to become a different sort of person altogether in order to behave ethically, they found that they could simply be more of who they believed they were already.
Reprint from Ivey Business Journal
[© Reprinted and used by permission of the Ivey Business School]