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Mary Kurek - Professional Networker & Visibility Consultant

Company Ethics Reflect on You!

Posted Sat, 07/25/2009 - 16:25 by mary

You are the new CIO of a company -- bright and on fire to make your mark. You have new ideas and an approach that leadership finds exciting. It's exactly what they want...or so they said.

Months into the job, you discover that meetings are being held without your knowledge and there's a political air about how decisions are made. Staff is being moved around and an uneasy feeling settles in. Your "toleration" sensor is kicking in - level 1.

When you raise questions, you are given a "pat on the back" and told not to worry...but you do. Then the anvil drops. They want to go in a totally different direction on a major project that you've spent the last few months developing. This new direction comes with another "body" who, oddly, is an older staff member who adheres to the old train of thought. Toleration level has bumped up to level 2.

Before you have a chance to even think about what's happening, you are thrown a bone - something less powerful-away from HQ. You're unsure if it is just a means to get you to "walk" or maybe there is some other reason...but now you ARE thinking.

Here's the trouble with thinking: you've been played like a fiddle. The company has shown their colors and if they treat YOU this way, they'll treat their customers and vendors this way, as well.

You've probably even sensed other things that raised a flag (like the company's policy on selling clients more than they need), but you've looked the other way. Oh, let's see, if you have a conscience (and we'll assume so), that means you've been tolerating all along.

You are working at a company with a lack of ethics and your executive position allows the same label applied to you.

So, the question is...do you continue tolerating a company with a lack of ethics and settle quietly into some reorganized version of your job just to keep it on the resume and money flowing into the checking account? Do you try getting the CEO alone to talk, or do you get the heck out?

If you stay, how will people view you? Here's how: eventually, a company that practices unethical behavior gets caught. Need I say Enron?

Results could be in the form of law suits, fines, bad press, nasty shake-up...who knows? If you stay -- you are a part of it all...implied guilt. Then, how easy will it be to secure a position elsewhere?

I've seen this similar scenario play out and, oddly, watched right-thinking execs struggle with the "stay or go" decision. The "viz" is on you -- what would you do?

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