Look around and you will find disappointing ethics and poor behavior that goes with it.
In the business world we are surrounded by self-serving people who generally do what is best for them. This hardly promotes quality cultures that are transparent, honest, and collaborative in any way.
About a month ago on a weekend my wife and mom were having lunch at a pizza restaurant.
While ordering our food, the cashier asked if we wanted something to drink.
All of us were happy drinking water and she gave us three clear cups.
At the soft drink machine, I filled all three cups up with water. I thought about how easy it would be to fill our cups up with a coke, lemonade, or other drink.
Fortunately, the needle on my moral compass was pointing to poor ethics contemplating the thought.
At that moment, a guy behind me took his clear cup and filled it up with coke. Then, he walked to his table where he happily joined his wife and kids.
I walked right past this guy and made some extended eye contact with him.
I couldn’t believe his lack of ethics and entitlement.
In discussing what happened with my family, it was apparent that poor behavior like this takes place all the time in various forms.
In the business world, how many times have you seen colleagues help themselves to the copy machine?
Have you seen an employee walk up to the postage meter machine and run an envelope through so they can pay a personal bill?
When I was a business owner in an information technology company, some employees were taking pens and paper from the supply cabinet as if it were a shopping trip to Office Max or something.
Had any one of them simply had the courtesy to ask prior to helping themselves, I wouldn’t have had a problem with their request.
Ethics is about doing the right thing every day and not taking shortcuts.
As we have previously pointed out and will continue to emphasize, humans have a tendency to rationalize and justify behavior.
When this occurs after taking a shortcut, I believe it will happen again.
Think before you speak and speak before you act.
Do your best every day and don’t put your own interests first.
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