Category Archives: Ethics

How Well Do You Manage Diversity?

Leave a reply

By Dr. Laura Hills, President, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

Assess your diversity management skills by answering yes or no to each of the questions below:

1. Do you test your assumptions about the people you manage before you act on them?

2. Do you believe that there is usually more than one way to accomplish a goal?

3, Do you convey that to your staff?

4. Do you have honest relationships with each staff member you supervise?

5. Are you comfortable with each member of your staff?

6. Do you know what motivates each member of your staff, what his or her goals are, and how he or she likes to be recognized?

7. Are you able to give negative feedback to a staff member who is culturally different from you?

8. When you have open positions in your organization, do you ensure that a diverse pool of candidates has applied?

9. Do you orient new employees to your organization’s culture and unwritten rules?

10. Do you rigorously examine your organization’s policies, practices, and procedures to ensure that they don’t differently impact different groups?

11. When they do, do you (or would you) change them?

12. Are you willing to listen to constructive feedback from your staff about ways to improve the work environment?

13. Do you implement staff suggestions and acknowledge their contributions?

14. Do you take immediate action with members of your staff when they behave in ways that show disrespect for others in the workplace, such as inappropriate jokes and offensive terms?

15. Do you make good faith efforts to meet your affirmative action goals?

16. Do you have a good understanding of institutional “isms” such as racism, ageism, and sexism and how they manifest themselves in an organization?

17. Do you ensure that assignments and opportunities for advancement are accessible to everyone in your organization?

If you were able to answer yes to more than half of the questions above, you are on the right track to managing diversity well. Continue to improve your diversity management skills so that you can answer every question with a resounding yes.

Why Was Mike Rice His Own Worst Enemy?

Leave a reply

By Dr. Laura Hills, President, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

My beloved Rutgers University is limping along these days, doing its best to clean up the mess caused by the outrageous behavior of recently-fired basketball coach Mike Rice. I am troubled. And I say this both as an alumnus of this fine university, and as the parent of a child who is a student there right now. I question how Mr. Rice’s behavior was permitted at an institution of higher learning. And I am saddened as I contemplate yet another person in a position of authority who has misused that power. From what I can tell, Mr. Rice had a fantastic coaching opportunity that many would envy. But he blew it, and he did so completely through his own fault. Mr. Rice’s poor self-control has cost him his job and has undoubtedly hurt the students he worked with and the people in his life who care about him. I can’t help but think: Why was Mike Rice his own worst enemy?

Blue Pencil Power Question™: What do you do to sabotage yourself and your goals?

We all aspire to accomplishing great things in our lives. But long-term goals require long-term commitment and sacrifice. We must delay gratification, stay in control, and often do the hard thing because doing so will ultimately get us where we want to be. Certainly, we can act in the moment to satisfy our anger, ambition, greed, vanity, ego, or lust. But giving in to our urges can and often does sabotage us so that we will never achieve our bigger goals.

It is a great relief to lash out when we’re upset. But we are more than our urges. We live for today but we must also live for tomorrow, because there will always be one. As we think about our behaviors and our goals, each of us needs to focus on what we need to do right now and every day – and what we must not do — so that we can live our values and our dreams and be a person others can respect.

Practical Guidelines for Communicating Ethically at Work

1 Reply

by Dr. Laura Hills, President, Blue Pencil Institute (www.bluepencilinstitute.com)

Practicing ethical communication at work isn’t always the easiest way to live. Often, you’ll find it easier to say nothing rather than to tell the truth. However, ethical communication means being truthful and upfront and saying what needs to be said, even when that’s difficult. Fabricating false information is clearly unethical, but so, too, is exaggerating or omitting important information that others need to know.

Ethical communication expresses care and respect for others. Everyone in your workplace deserves to be respected, regardless of the individual’s job, socioeconomic status, gender, race, age, or other characteristics. Communicate with others in ways that demonstrate that respect. And, don’t tolerate communication from others that degrades individuals and humanity through the expression of intolerance and hatred.

Career professionals who practice ethical communication also support others as they share information, opinions, and feelings. Be a person who supports diversity of perspective and freedom of expression in your workplace. Believe wholeheartedly that unethical communication threatens the well-being of others and the integrity of all communication in your workplace. Be a thoughtful listener and keep an open mind to those around you.

Badmouthing your employer or colleagues is unethical communication. Even after work hours, you need to be very careful about what you say about your employer and to whom. Avoid negative communication about your workplace in a public place where your conversation may be overheard. The most ethical behavior is to keep your thoughts to yourself or to address important matters directly with the individuals involved, at appropriate times, in an appropriate place, and in appropriate ways.

Finally, a career professional who communicates ethically maintains confidentiality. Once you’ve agreed to work in your profession or your place of business, you’ve also agreed to abide by certain policies and procedures for maintaining confidentiality. Breaching these rules, except with prior and appropriate permission and under very special circumstances, is unethical communication and carries with it severe consequences. You have an ethical duty not only to keep things confidential by not sharing them wrongfully, but also, to safeguard confidentiality by making sure you’re not overheard and by keeping documents from wandering eyes. Be careful when handling confidential documents or computer files to ensure that others without need don’t have access to the information. Close doors, keep your voice low, and do whatever else you must do to ensure confidentiality.

Answer These 12 Questions to Decide If Something is Ethical

Leave a reply

At some point in your professional or personal life, you may face a difficult challenge and wonder whether what you are considering to do or not do is ethical. It can be very difficult to balance multiple points of view and competing demands to come up with an ethical decision. And, in life, we often find ourselves in an ethical gray zone or feel that no one answer is clearly the most ethical.

Below is a set of 12 questions you can work through when you find yourself in difficult situations such as these. Use these questions to help you consider all of the sides of the dilemma and the ethical consequences of what you are considering to do or not do.

1. What are the potential consequences or outcomes of this action or decision?

2. Who will benefit? How and to what extent?

3. Who might suffer? How and to what extent?

4. What is my motivation personally for doing this?

5. What is my motivation for my business or employer for doing this?

6. Is it legal? Or, might there be legal consequences?

7. Would I like to see this on the front page of the newspaper or on the six o’clock television news?

8. Will this increase or decrease my respect for myself?

9. Will this increase or decrease the respect others feel for me?

10. Does his feel right in my body? Does it cause my stomach to tie in knots? Am I losing sleep over it? Do I have clammy hands? Tension headaches? Other physical symptoms that indicate that this doesn’t feel right to me.

11. Does this decision support or damage our business’s culture and values? Would I want this done or said to me? Would I want to be treated this way by another person or by another business?

12. If I told this to the most ethical person I know, what would he or she advise me to do? Would my mentor or hero approve?

For more information about our personal and professional development products, programs, and coaching services, please visit our website at www.bluepencilinstitute.com. — Dr. Laura Hills, President, Blue Pencil Institute

Communicating Personally on a Business Email? Uh-Oh!

Leave a reply

If your business uses email, provides email service for you and your co-workers, or allows you to use email for business purposes, you’ll benefit tremendously from instituting and following a company-wide email policy. Here’s what typically goes into a business email policy:

Personal use of the email system. A business email policy can explain whether employees can use email for personal messages. If the business places restrictions on personal messages (for example, that employees can send them only during non-work hours, must exercise discretion as to the number and type of messages sent, or may not send personal messages with large attachments), describe those rules.

Monitoring. In general, an employer reserves the right to monitor employee email messages at any time. An email policy can explain that any messages employees send using your business’s equipment or email are not private, even if the employee considers them to be personal. If you will monitor employee emails regularly using a particular system — for example, a system that flags key words or copies every draft of a message — explain that system. This will help deter employees from sending offensive or highly personal messages on your work email.

Rules. A business email policy can make clear that all of your workplace policies and rules (such as rules against harassment, discrimination, violence, and solicitation) apply to employee use of the email system. The policy can further remind employees that email messages sent on your business’s equipment or email should be professional and appropriate.

Deleting email. A business email policy can establish a schedule for purging email messages and for archiving emails. The policy can further describe for employees specifically how they are to save important messages from the purge.

Are you looking for more information about managing your emails? Or, would you like to use an interesting tool to help your employees manage their emails well? If so, check out my Pinterest board, “Email: 50 Do’s and Don’ts” at http://pinterest.com/drlaurahills/email-50-do-s-and-don-ts/. – Dr. Laura Hills, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

Don’t Be a Time Bandit: A Four-Rule Ethics Tune Up for Employees

4 Replies

Most people agree that it’s unethical to steal goods, equipment, funds, or information from an employer. Most also agree that it’s unethical blame others for our mistakes, to lie, or to belittle or bully others. These are ethical “givens” that are part of the deal anyone makes when agreeing to work for an employer.

However, employee time is often a gray area. Many employees use work time to do things other than their work. But is that the right thing to do? To begin, consider carefully what it means when an organization agrees to employ you. Your employer pays you a specified salary or hourly wage and perhaps some benefits for your work. In exchange, the assumption is that you’re working the hours you’re scheduled to work. The overarching agreement between you and your employer is therefore that work time is work time. That means that the time you’re scheduled for work is under the control of your employer. It’s not time for you to use for other activities.

I believe that the misuse of work time is a pervasive and subtle form of theft that shortchanges an employer and chips away at an employee’s integrity. To help, I recommend that employees ensure that they’re working the hours they’re supposed to and have agreed work and giving their employers an honest day’s work by following by these four basic rules:

1. Be prompt. Arrive on time, be ready to work, and work all of the hours you’re scheduled to work. Sounds simple, right? However, many employees steal time at the beginning and end of the workday. Imagine that your regularly-scheduled work hours are between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Now imagine that you clock in at 8:15 a.m. every morning and leave at 4:35 p.m. Missing these 40 minutes of work time each day for a month adds up to a total of 13 hours of lost work time. Over the course of a year, that 40 minutes per day adds up to 156 hours of missed work – the equivalent of nearly four weeks! So, an employee who misses 40 minutes of work each day is essentially taking an extra one-month paid vacation each year. Don’t let this happen to you. Come to work early or on time and don’t ask to leave early or try to slip out unnoticed. Then, if circumstances occur so that you don’t work all of your scheduled hours, don’t exaggerate or lie about your work hours on your time sheet. Fill in only the hours you’ve been present and working. Offer to make up the missed time or take less pay – that’s what’s fair and right.

2. Don’t take unsanctioned breaks. Your employer may allow you to take a 15-minute break mid-morning and mid-afternoon and a 30- or 60-minute lunch break. Don’t stretch these times or take more breaks than you’ve agreed to take. If you do, you’ll be shortchanging your employer of the hours you’ve agreed to work.

3. Conduct your personal business outside of your work hours. Employees are stealing time when they use work time to make personal phone calls, check personal emails, tweet, text their friends, go on their personal Facebook pages, shop online, play games, run errands, socialize, or engage in study, a side business, or other activities that aren’t within the scope of their jobs. Unless clearly specified as exceptions, your employer expects your time and your attention to work matters during work hours.

4. Be industrious. Your employer shouldn’t expect you to kill yourself working but does expect you to work at a reasonable pace to complete your work. An employee with integrity doesn’t goof off and isn’t lazy at work. — Dr. Laura Hills, President, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

Author’s Note: This blog post is written for employees. Business owners and managers may want to share this post with their employees or make this post the topic of a staff meeting or one-on-one meetings with their employees.

Readers interested in learning more about managing their time may enjoy Blue Pencil Institute’s 25 Top Time Management Tips. On Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/drlaurahills/25-time-management-tips/