Tempo from the top to create momentum from the middle

In a review of the world's most ethical insurance companies, produced for the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) as part of its ethical guidance series, one of the key points was for the main change agents ie the leaders, to demonstrate "tempo from the top", a term coined to replace the more passive "tone from the top". Leadership tempo is seen as a key way in driving "momentum from the middle" ensuring that the organisation fires on all cylinders, essential elements in gaining competitive advantage (sector leadership) both financially and ethically. Their success does not happen overnight It requires determined and sustained communication and feedback with stakeholders and a real sense of business purpose.

To read more see  the "changing the story: reasons to believe" report.http://www.cii.co.uk/media/5693987/c14j_9286_ethical_culture_5_reasons_to_believe_-_v3_web.pdf

More of the findings will be covered in this blog over the forthcoming days.

Understanding Ethical Leadership Failures (part 2)

Following yesterday's blog, and taken from the same source, the potential organisational ethical failures are:

• Lack of clarity ("what does ethical mean around here?")
• No ethical leadership and behaviour standards ("there are no rules about this")
• Oversimplified rules ("just do the right thing")
• Lack of positive role models ("who is doing it the right way")
• No training or coaching (" how will I learn it")
• No accountability, no enforcement ("nothing bad happens if I do it, even though it's not allowed")
• No performance integration "we say we want ethics but we reward and promote based on sales and output")
• When problems happen, scapegoats are quickly fired (instead of learning from mistakes and fixing culture").

So, it is likely that ethical failures are due to more than one of these factors and a combination of individual failures (see yesterday's blog) and organisational failures.

This just reinforces the point that strong ethical leaders and role models are essential in engendering ethical conduct so that there are visible and active examples of how to behave everyday and what "doing the right thing" means.

Understanding (and preventing) ethical leadership failures

The content of today's blog is attributed to the American Linda Fisher Thornton who has written about understanding some of the problems that cause ethical leadership failures. These relate to individual problems and other problems embedded in the organisational culture.

You may recognise some of these in your organisation, or probably a combination of them. So, starting with the individual, these are some of Linda's identified issues.

• Ignoring boundaries (ignoring ethics codes and organisational values that forbid and action).
• Failing to use self-control ("I will do this even though it's not allowed")
• Entitlement view ("I definitely deserve this even though it's not allowed")
• Prominent personal values (" I think this is really fine to do even though it's not allowed")
• Crowd following ("Everyone else is doing it, so it must be fine")
• Lack of moral compass ("Nobody specifically said I can't do it so it must be fine if I do it").

The latter two points here show how easy it is for companies in a particular sector to just follow their competitors, regardless of whether the actions fit with organisational values. It also shows how important, and how difficult it often is,to find leaders who are prepared to challenge, rigorously and often,internal practice and conduct.

Tone from the top: collaboration and transparency

Hannah Jones, Nike's global head of sustainability and innovation is reported in the "Management Focus" magazine of Cranfield School of Management to have said " We believe that the innovations required to create the future won't come from a single source. Not from science. Not from technology. Not from governments. Not from business. But from all of us. We must harness the collective power of unconventional partnerships to dramatically redefine the way we thrive in the future.

Her boss, Nike CEO Mark Parker responded. "Our future depends on innovation,collaboration and transparency."

These statements show that one of the major international companies is now responding actively and creatively to sustainable solutions. They will be doing this because they believe it gives them competitive advantage.  Competitive advantage is one one of the many business benefits of a commitment to ethical behaviours. Setting this kind of "tone from the top" with an emphasis on transparency (being open to your stakeholders) and collaboration, is a really good starting point for all organisations.