Happy Mother’s day to all of you remarkable women!!
This morning I was fortunate enough to take my mom to church services and spend a delightfully long breakfast with her covering a wide range of subjects including ethics. Our visit ended when she noticed a waiting line expanding at the host’s stand. In her typical selfless manner she said, “Other mothers deserve our table.”
A little background about my mother is in order. A native of New York City, she was a child genius at the age of twelve and graduated from high school at sixteen. Mom attended Queens College condensing four years of classes into two and graduated valedictorian. She was fluent in Spanish, understood Italian, and read Latin.
Times were different in 1946 when she stormed into the corporate world to pursue a career in finance. Most of her friends were getting married and starting families. She commenced her career with an international import-export company in Manhattan as the only female in the accounting department.
Within four years she became the corporate controller, a year later was C.F.O. at the age of twenty-three, and a member of the Board of Directors at twenty-five. Never one to point out this astonishing rise or accomplishments, mom said she earned every promotion. She also recalls the C.E.O. cultivating an ethics based culture centered around respect, consideration, and courtesy for others. Demanding by nature, he was also fair, equal, and treated his colleagues with dignity.
Mom’s full-time finance career with the import-export company ended a few years later when she decided to get married and start a family. Her love for numbers and a desire to help out small businesses with their finances continued until she retired at the age of seventy-five.
I happily declare the following: mom is my hero and has had an incredible impact on my life and values. Her pearls of wisdom are too lengthy to mention here and would consume volumes of chapters.
To the important question at hand: why is the workplace so dysfunctional, employee engagement so low, and ethics not in full play? She ticked off the following for our educational absorption:
1. Net profit has become the most important priority for executive leaders; they are consumed by short-term results and compensated accordingly.
2. Cronyism is a major problem in the executive ranks and at the board level. The idea of protecting and covering for each other first at the expense of others derails ethics from developing and flourishing.
3. Developing values based cultures where ethics rule is impossible when executive leaders are not honest, trusting, and actively seek out input from their colleagues.
4. An organization’s responsibility is to develop successful teams who are independent and fully empowered to create customer and community value. Profits will naturally flow from that.
5. Employees are not like trash: we collect and then dispose of them to the tune of self-serving executive whims.
It is her claim and my contention that most organizations require a major makeover to eliminate worker unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and lack of loyalty. There is no place for arrogance, greed, shortcuts, self-serving interests, and entitlements.
The most successful organizations understand this and make ethics as important as profits.
Remember this my friends: respect, consideration, and courtesy matter a lot. Treat others fairly, decently, and equally.
Consult your moral compasses every chance you get.
You know the battle cry: do your best each day. No one can ask more or less from any of us.
All the best/blessings, Mark
No comments yet.