How To Avoid The Ethical Problems Of Wells Fargo And Elon Musk
Here are three strategies you can and should adopt if you want to avoid the troubles plaguing Wells Fargo and Elon Musk and instead lead with ethical intelligence.
Hire for character as well as competence
Your company probably does a great job of hiring knowledgeable and skilled people. You make it clear in your job postings what a successful candidate needs to know and be able to do. You ensure that a prospective hire’s resume reveals a thorough understanding of and experience in the relevant field. During the interview, you ask questions to discern how well the candidate is likely to perform in the position.
How important is all of this? It’s essential. You can’t afford to hire anyone at any level of your organization who lacks the requisite knowledge and skill. Consider the latest scandal involving Wells Fargo. Yet again, we see how unethical conduct damages consumer trust and the bottom line (this time at a jaw-dropping $3.7 billion.).
Do you take care to attract and hire people of high character? Does your home page include an easy-to-find tab that describes your company’s values? Are your job postings embedded with references to these values? Does your company even have clearly articulated values to begin with? Do you study a job candidate’s evaluations to see how honest and accountable they are? Do you ask interview questions that are likely to reveal the candidate’s ethical intelligence?
The takeaway: Use the questions in the third paragraph of this section to increase the likelihood that you hire for character as well as competence.
Accept defeat graciously
In an episode of The Andy Griffith Show called “A Medal for Opie,” Ron (at the time, Ronny) Howard’s character decides he wants to win an upcoming foot race. He practices hard for days with Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife. He fantasizes about a stadium filled with people cheering him on as he is awarded the first-place prize.
But on the day of the race, out of four contestants, he comes in fourth. He mopes back to his house all alone and spends the afternoon feeling sorry for himself. When Opie’s dad, Sheriff Andy Taylor, comes home, he tells Opie that it wasn’t very nice of him to walk away without congratulating the winner.
“I didn’t win!” Opie replies.
That’s true, his dad tells him, but the important thing is that he was in there trying. “It’s nice to win something,” Andy says, “but it’s more important to know how not to win something.” It takes courage to be a good loser, Andy stresses, and he implores his son several times to graciously acknowledge the other boy’s victory.
This episode should be required viewing in every business school and executive education program in the world. Political candidates would do well to study it too. Writer Frank Tarloff shows what can happen when we refuse to accept defeat. You owe it to yourself to watch the entire episode to see how the conflict is resolved.
The upshot: Refusing to admit that you lost a race is a reflection of poor character, but it’s never too late to redeem yourself.
Know when to pass the torch
It takes a strong person to admit, “It’s time for me to move on.” The hit HBO show Succession, whose fourth season begins in the spring, reveals the folly of a CEO who believes he’ll live forever and doesn’t have a replacement lined up. This hubris makes for riveting drama on TV, but in real life, the results in real life aren’t pretty.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk is a contemporary example of a leader who ought to move on for the good of his company. He even asked users to vote on whether he should stay or leave. He announced that he would abide by the results of the poll. Over 17 million votes were cast, and more than 57 percent of users said he should step down. So far, he hasn’t.
The takeaway: Before you overstay your welcome, make sure you have a successor is in place. Step aside when the good of your company demands it.
Call to action
Adopt these strategies:
Hire for character as well as competence
Accept defeat graciously
Know when to pass the torch