Do You Want To Get Paid? I Do!

We have all had good days and bad in business. The small business person, lives daily on the hopes that he has a good sales or service day. In the case of employees who work independently at home for a living, it can be a different ballgame.

A friend of mine sent me an email, frustrated and upset because she had 3 client invoices outstanding, and her clients had not so much as even "suggested" the money due, was on its way. My friend was in desperate need for the money, she had worked hard for her income, and her own bills were now overdue.

"I have sent two invoices to each client, and have not heard back from them yet," she complained. "I go through this every month with at least one client and it is so frustrating,".

Business is business and one of the most important aspects of considering your business a success, is of course, the revenue generated. But there is also a certain ethic about getting paid, that parlays the success factor as well. Everyone hates to pay bills. Everyone also knows they have a responsibility to do so. In a harsh economy, or when times grow tight, the bottom line is that employers and employees must still get paid. Even if it is a small amount due, say, $125.00, that may be just what the employee needs to pay that electric bill, and the utility companies do not wait for THEIR money anymore. So the electric or water is turned off. Then there is a turn-on fee, and late fee adding insult to injury, and the rest of the budget goes haywire, all because that one check did not come in the mail on time.

I personally have never understand a system that punishes you for NOT having enough money. Another friend of mine, lost her husband in the war. She had to move out of the army housing with her 2 children, and find a p. She had no "extra" funds, but a little bit to get started until her husbands probate was cleared.

When my friend went to get the utilities turned on, she found that each utility company, the water, the gas, the electric and the trash company, all required deposits. Now she and her husband had fallen on hard times, just before he left for another country, and they had been behind in their bills with the collectors demanding payment. They worked out an agreement with the creditors, like responsible people do, however, the companies had a policy that the deposit amount you pay, is based on your credit score.

This poor woman, had to pay $300.00 just to have her gas and electric on, and $150.00 to have the water turned on. The policy did not care WHAT anyone's circumstances were, they just knew your score was not up there where THEY thought it should be, so they made lots of money off of people who were already barely able to live. I had heard the same complaint from a disabled senior, who became sick suddenly, and had to move. Her deposits were sky high and it didn't matter that she was disabled.

Business people have to realize that bills have to be paid. When one bill falls short, a whole chain reaction of events take place that your not aware of. Remember, the small business person or contractor, do not have the option of collection agencies, and rarely, deposits...so let's remember to pay the small guy first. Their lights may depend on it.

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Love As A Rational Business Strategy

A business strategy gains power, when it flows with the tide of nature. It can grant you the pivotal wisdom to plan and execute your significant approaches in business. You need to be aware that your strategies are actually not decided by you. Each moment of your life, nature manages them, without your conscious awareness. It assembles the required data and focuses your system for action. Powerful intelligences within your mind formulate those responses and control your every action. Many such entities operate in the background even now, as you read these words. One among them recognizes the black and white pixels on this page, identifies them as words, fetches their meanings, evaluates the grammar and conveys their final purport to you. Such massive data processing occurs within the few milliseconds in which your eyes pass over these lines. So too, the strategies of your business are decided by the same deep wisdom within your nerve cells. To grasp that concept, it is useful to know the neural mechanisms, which have evolved over millions of years to formulate your strategies in life.

Before the development of the neocortical brain of humans, a string of more primitive brains assisted animals to survive. The earliest nosebrains used smells as a basis for approaching, attacking, or retreating from a situation. Later, the mammalian brains developed emotions for more sophisticated controls. The emotions of anger, fear, jealousy, love and laughter manipulated the nervous system to employ highly focused strategies. Anger followed an aggressive strategy. Fear managed a defensive approach. Jealousy sought to put down the competition and love sought to cherish and protect. A relaxation of the tensions of conflict was achieved through laughter. These emotions activated physical systems for fight, flight, or relaxation. Even more important, they provided contextual information to the mind to assist each strategy.

Each emotion recorded and recalled contextual data. The background of every hostile response faced by a person is recorded into memory in the context of his anger. Later, an angry person can only recall past irritating incidents, which intensify his anger. The system inhibits memories of favorable actions carried out by the antagonist. When influenced by anger, the person fails to recall past acts of friendship. On the other hand, fear focuses on the results of failure and removes memories of previous successes. Negative emotions suppress useful data. Anger removes memories of the benefits of a cooperative effort and fear, the valuable recollections of past successes. When you are controlled by hatred or dread, your brain works without access to critical knowledge. While negative emotions limit your wisdom, positive emotions expand the data available to your mind. It is in this context that you need to see the remarkably powerful impact of the emotion of love.

While fear may compel you to be frozen into inactivity, love opens vast databases of strategic options for your mind. Centuries ago, the bible had recorded the impact of the emotion of love on behavior. Love was patient and kind. Love suppressed the emotions of anger, irritability, jealousy and rudeness. The deepest needs of the person were subdued to give way to an intense awareness of the needs of the loved one. Past wrongs were forgotten and forgiven. Love persisted in spite of problems, keeping faith in the loved one. Love did not gloat over injustice and was happy with the victory of truth. Nature's pattern recognition processes had crafted an incredibly high standard of behavior through a single emotion, to impel the best in mankind. The impact of the emotion of love has been acknowledged by generations of people across thousands of years.

In business, love is a radical option. The conventional advice is to be guided by paranoia for survival in the harsh commercial world. There, deceit and treachery appear to be the standard. A colleague may lack even the basic norms of decency in interactions. He proceeds to act with utter selfishness, without any concern for the anguish inflicted on years of friendship. A trusted employee plots against you behind your back, even while you have persistently supported his advancement in every forum. Such situations are common in business. Anger and vengeance appear to be the natural reactions after such episodes. In this milieu, love is not exactly a natural option.

But, emotions can be simulated. It is possible to simulate lifelike fear, dread, or love. Great actors achieve this every day. For ordinary people, it is true that, emotions are the automatic responses to situations. But, even they can consciously cultivate emotions. Those emotions will, in turn, control their minds. Even anger can be simulated. Say "Stop it!" with an angry look. When your eyeballs thrust forward a couple of millimeters, your words will suddenly have an aggressive tenor. When you glare, your system adopts a belligerent mode of speech. The Buddhists have been known to practice the development of compassion as an approach to life. They try to imagine the pain of a bird, or the anguish of an enemy. Though it appears quite unconventional, it is possible to simulate a loving viewpoint towards even your worst enemy.

A loving viewpoint effects a remarkable transformation. When you look at your opponent from a kind perspective, his most vicious actions will suddenly appear to be pitiable weaknesses. Short sighted selfishness is often an inherent defect. Such failings are usually permanent liabilities for the affected people, transporting them inevitably into lonely and friendless situations with the passage of years. The view, which exposes such behavior as weaknesses, will also see the strengths and agreeable parts of such a person. It fetches memories of the benefits, which accrued to you over time from that relationship. While anger would have terminated the association, a kinder view enables you to cautiously continue interactions. In the end, you will draw on the benefits of that relationship, which you would have otherwise terminated. Love prevents the constriction of your world into a small acceptable circle for cooperation. It enables you to broaden your relationships, while keeping you fully aware of the serious pitfalls.

The cultivation of a loving viewpoint maximizes your strategic potential. It is the massive wisdom of the evolutionary process, which created the emotion of love. The simulation and application of love can give you a powerful strategic vision for your business. It swiftly presents helpful data and empowers you to make decisions, which will, in the end, benefit all life. Love has a bearing on the larger realms of your business. A kinder view perceives that the efforts of your competitor does also expand the potential of your business. Jointly, you may find solutions to the problems in your industry. When you care for your customer and the environment, you will make adjustments, which will ultimately enhance the reputation of your business. Incredibly, the whole strategic plan can be set in motion with a simple decision to view the world with kindness.

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Mainstream Propheteering - Prophets Seeking Profits

With so many wealth and business gurus out there, how's a person to know what is real and what is not. Today's knowledge campaign trail is filled with new renditions of very old songs but are all worthy of an attentive ear? The problem presents itself in deciding which wannabe prophet we want to follow. True, all of us have a gift or message that needs to be shared but there is a certain level of integrity that must prevail in earning the respect of an audience. And unfortunately our standards for "FOLLOWSHIP" have become somewhat turned inside out.

In fact, it's almost fashionable to be inappropriately popular. This brings to mind the MAFIA. Growing up in the seventies, gurus were plenty and the MAFIA was still quietly regarded as the GOOD BAD GUY. Meaning, it's okay to kill, mame and pass judgment as long as you make some philanthropic demonstration to balance the scales. Today the MAFIA is not what it used to be (the popular clique on the block) but there are other similar social scams out there; some far more deceptive than the mafia of the 70's could have ever imagined. These can be identified in every facet of life; music, education, government, business, spirituality and healthcare. It's called "politics"... I call it "propheteering".

Propheteering is a strategy used to market ideas and make icons or gurus out of great actors and actresses. Little attention is given to the integrity of the message. In fact, they can be singing the same song and consumers are made to believe it is something new. I don't care if we are voting for a President or looking to sign up our company with a business consulting firm promising wealth, we must look at the intention behind the firm. Intention is everything.

Questions to ask:

1. Is there more than one expert on staff?

2. Is the playground shared in terms of promoting the product or is the attention primarily focused on one or two individuals in terms of making the OPRAH circuit?

3. Do company representatives serve well outside of their career pursuit?

If the answer is yes to all three questions, make an appointment to listen to their sales pitch. We don't need anymore Prophets seeking Profit. We need people serving people.

Perhaps I'm dating myself, but remember when the customer came first and was always right?

I do.

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Concerning Business Ethics

Ethics is not an easy path, in most cases, nor is it a path taken by businesspersons without thought or consideration. That is not saying that ethical decision-making is complicated (although in some cases it may be confusing and culturally complicated, and we shall think through that), but even decisions that are not complicated are not always easy courses to take. Let's take a close look at some of the kinds of situations and events that may arise in the ethical daily travels of a businessperson and consider whether the right choice is easy, or not. As a side thought, remember that some ethical and moral decisions are small in the grand scheme of business, but those decisions, like a dripping faucet now, can become a flood later.

Decisions that do not overtly attract moral condemnation, but nonetheless contain value judgments and may be considered more or less ethical across cultures, are made every day in organizations throughout the globe, for instance, think about these decisions, shall I call in sick to have a day off, or, should I use the office telephone to make a private call?

Ethics in business is serious whether we speak about stealing from one's company, doing personal business on the corporate clock, or rigging the accounting process to hide (or at least try to hide) a multi-billion dollar corporation financial scandal. Is there a dilemma in the businessperson's life surrounding ethics and integrity, or have we made it seem so, and in fact is there always a right choice available?

The point is, as Drucker noted in 1974, any means can be justified if the end is determined to be for the overall good. We will examine several issues; the perspective of clarity and precision versus flexibility, top-down influence versus bottom-up influence, substance versus process, confrontation versus compromise, and tangible versus intangible. In most cases, research shows that the best choice (at least in business environments like the United States) is to have a corporate code of ethics (integrity), and in the larger corporate enterprises, there is usually a compliance division with a hotline, and webpage. This is the best arrangement for a business, and if the top leadership has given thought to the matter, there should be no confusion, or complication in the matter of ethics/integrity.

In CSO Magazine, March 2004 edition, a Chief Security Officer wrote anonymously about a scattered approach in the corporate environment that did not comprehensively define or guide the corporate body in the area of integrity and ethics. If this individual reports a situation that is a reflection of the condition of this important matter in corporate America, then the situation may be that the Enron fiasco is doomed for repetition.

Ethics and integrity in business would seem to beg for a well-defined, and fully trained (and regularly reviewed) corporate code of ethics/integrity. Should integrity be focused from a top-down perspective or can it be driven from the bottom-up? It seems the prevailing thought is that it is best driven from the top down. One could certainly agree that either an executive, or an executive sponsored committee writes policies and procedures at departmental level, and then the HR training directorate normally provides the written guide and training to the corporate body.Cultural issues will confuse and provide a bit of complication in the matter of ethics and integrity. The debate over child labor has been a contentious and difficult matter, with the arguments rising about the need for a family to survive even if that survival comes in part by a working child. In addition, the use of prison labor brings the debate over rehabilitation and instilling a strong work ethic, and can there be harm in a company accruing some benefit from that labor.

Change in this cultural ethical confusion has begun as following the Asian financial crisis many Asian businesses are rethinking their ethical stances and applying a system of governance that is clearer, and more professional, which several management researchers indicate is modeled on Western business practices.

Sometimes there is difficulty in decision-making where ethics is concerned due to confusion since a practice may be ethically problematic and legal today, but then the law may change tomorrow rendering that business practice both illegal and problematic ethically. What must the course of action for the manager and the company be at this point? It is a conundrum that many companies must face as BP did in the early 1980's by making a corporate choice to act more responsibly in relation to the environmental area.

Clarity and precision are fine goals for the ethics and integrity of a business and they encourage improved communication and understanding as to context, tone, timing, and reference points. The final question is how to implement the better practices once they are decided? Here are a few methods that may assist in ensuring clear policies, goals, and the code of ethics are well communicated; peer discussion groups, regular or ad hoc stakeholders' discussion groups, appropriate information and decision-making systems, and training for managers in necessary ethical decision-making competences. Certainly this is a start, many of the questions and struggles around this business ethics area will be resolved by personal decisions within the mind of the individual worker. Yes, it is a start, but there is a ways yet to travel.

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Business Person of Integrity

I believe that all of us can be honest if we really want to. It is not something that comes naturally to us, because we are selfish creatures, we are apt to only think about ourselves and what we can get out of the situation. Well if all of us take that attitude we are in a pitiful shape. I am a business owner and i have purposed in my business that i will have integrity and honesty in my dealing with my customers. I will work to the end to make sure that what i say, that i will do, and what i sell i will stand behind. I will not sell a product that i can't get behind 100% and know that the quality is good for me and for my customers. So many times we think that we need to sell anything in order to make a dollar, well that is not true for me.

I will not sell certain things, simply because i need to make a dollar. It is important to me to be able to tell my customers that i use what i sell, that i cook with and will give what i sell to my family as gifts so that they know that what i am doing is of importance to me. I believe that integrity is short sited for so many people today, and we just go along with what someone else is doing. Well that just not good enough for me. When i stand before God i want him to say "WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT" . All of us have the opportunity to be honest and to have integrity, but will we? I am just one person who has decided to live a life that shows my ethics and to live what i say i believe, and to do what i say i will do, what about you. You can decide today to treat others as you want to be treated, or to talk to others as you would want to be talked to, or live your life doing unto others as you would want them to do onto you. Now what would happen if all of us as of this day decided to have integrity in our dealing with us, not just in our business life, but in our everyday life as well.

A few years ago i allowed my circumstances to dictate whether or not i would be honest in a situation, this is the story: we went into a grocery store and the cashier forgot to ring a large item, and i didn't tell her that she had forgotten to ring the item, so i paid her what she said i owed her and i left the store, my husband said we didn't pay for that piece of meat and you knew that the cashier didn't charge us, so we should go back and pay for it now, i said absolutely not it was her mistake not mine. Well not the end of the story, we argued about this for sometime and it really caused a great deal of confusion in our marriage.

The thing that came out of this was, we agreed that from that moment on we would not allow our needs to dictated our integrity, you see we had just gotten married and our money was very tight and i tried to rationalize that maybe that was a blessing from God, well of course you know that God will not give us a stolen blessing. So we agreed that if someone gave us to much we would tell them and give back the overage, or if they owed us we would tell them and get back what was owed us, and i can truly say that from that time forward we have tried to live our lives using that philosophy. We have chosen to have integrity and honesty in our lives on a daily basis.

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Why A Code Of Ethics For A Home Or Small Business?

We have seen Conrad Black, Martha Stewart, Enron, Tyco, and countless others in the headlines as their career or business is examined to see "what went wrong?" Newspaper headlines scream about insider trading, companies cooking their books, and other scandals involving business executives at mostly major corporations. Even today, many are questioning the ethics of lenders and investors in the sub-prime market as people are losing their homes to foreclosure and investors are losing their money through direct or indirect involvement. Why was money lent to people who could not afford payments when normal market rates would come into effect? Why would lenders package these loans without identifying the inherent risk of them to the purchasers?

Scandals such as these tarnish the reputations of business in general, including the small business owner. Investors perceive higher risk, customers are more wary, and the financial industry gets reluctant to extend credit. In spite of this, many small-business owners think a written code of ethics unnecessary. There are even more home businesses that would not believe that a code of ethics is necessary for them. This assumption is simply false. There is a huge benefit to having a written code of ethics for the small business including your home business.

A code of ethics will identify to suppliers, customers, contractors, and employees what behavior is up to standard and what is not. We will come across ethics violators in the normal course of business and we must stand firm to our code of ethics and avoid dealing with these people.

A written code of ethics identifies those basics that you consider essential in operating a business of integrity and character. Communicating this on your website and other informational material will give you an advantage in the marketplace. If you live by it, you will have the added benefit of being able to sleep at night.

A useful code of ethics will have some basic ingredients such as adherence to applicable laws, conflicts of interest to avoid, sexual or other harassment, workplace safety, environmental concerns, industry rules, regulations and practice as well as accuracy of financial information. Be careful however, as one culture or society's norms may not be the same as yours. For example, some locales require that "special inducements" be paid in order to obtain or carry on business. Or it may be that oppression against people exists where the business will occur. What will the rules be around this? The code of ethics should address these issues.

The code of ethics must fit with the personality, values, and mission of the particular small business. As confusing as it may sound, ethics are a very personal thing. For example, one person may think it unethical (at least to that person) to sell a product of questionable value, while another will say that the determination of value is made by the buyer and to withhold the good from sale would be unethical. (This example assumes that no fraud or misrepresentation occurred.) It will help if you can include your stakeholders in developing appropriate pieces of your code of ethics, thereby gaining a second opinion.

In the examples stated above, a code of ethics was in place, but they were ignored, not understood, or the people involved justified their transgressions as being "in the greater good". So simply having a code of ethics is not enough. Post your code of ethics, and set up a reporting system that could include accepting anonymous reports. While you don't want to encourage a culture of "tattle-tales", stakeholders will need a way to inform someone about any ethics violations they may see. Most important is to show others that you live by the code of ethics yourself. Living by a set of high values will garner trust and confidence in the business and you. They will be then willing to discuss areas of concern with you.

Failing to act on ethics violations will disable even the best intentioned of your efforts just as failing to announce and endorse your code of ethics to your stakeholders renders it practically meaningless. When formulating your code of ethics policy, specify what consequences go with lapses and breaches. Your leadership skills will be tested as you strive to holding people to ethical conduct. But it is worth the peace of mind.

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How Healthy Ethics Work - Principles, Processes, Evolution & Revolution

In the realm of ethical decision-making, familiarity breeds a kind of ethical stability. In other words, as long as the people, cultural setting, values and issues are relatively known to those involved, then the kinds of ethical decisions those people are required to make will be sufficiently familiar for them to do so in relatively manageable ways. Being ethical will be neither too challenging nor too difficult for them to understand. Thus, ethical familiarity breeds ethical stability.

Newness and change, however, can breed a kind of ethical instability. When new people enter the setting bringing a very different culture and a somewhat different set of values, and having different customs and practices, then it is likely that new problems will arise among and between both groups. The meeting and interchange between and among the principles and processes familiar to these groups is where the difficulties arise. To use a different vocabulary, this is a conflict between their principles and processes.

Ethical Principles are the values and preferences of a group as imagined, articulated and understood. They expect that all the ordinary activities of life revolve around them. They actually see and perceive the reality of the world from the perspective of those values and preferences. For example, a group will articulate just how much and what kinds of assertive behaviors are allowed (e.g., organized sports) and which ones are outlawed (e.g., gladiatorial combat & dueling to the death).

Ethical Processes are the ways in which ethical decisions are made. This includes how the ethical principles and issues are perceived, how they are analyzed, how the principles are applied and how competing principles are seen in relationship to each other. For example the ancient Oath of Hippocrates "not to administer a poison nor to recommend such a course" seems clear, and yet, in modern medical practice "chemo-therapy" is precisely that, the administration of poison, but in a controlled and prudent manner for the good health of the patient. Indeed, the Hippocratic Oath has changed with time. Clearly competent health care professionals had to actively engage a moral dilemma, analyze the facts, and with great information and imagination, devise and risk a new course of action. Hence, big changes can come about, but ideally of course, only with careful, responsible, competent and reasonable engagement by all concerned.

The Reality of Ethical Evolution and Revolution: The process of applying principles can be anything from simple and easy to most complex and difficult. Circumstances and situations demand a nuanced appreciation for many ethical issues. That is why civilizations have developed classes or professions of judges of all sorts (e.g., the judiciary, boards of review, and umpires in athletic contests) who spend their time studying, practicing, reviewing, assessing, weighing and deciding within the contexts of real-life issues. It is from just such considerations as these that principles and processes are sometimes found to meet their limits because of changes in circumstances, situations, knowledge and popular moral insight and acceptance. Some ethical principles and processes formerly considered ethical become unethical (e.g., those allowing for slavery and polygamy, and vigilante law enforcement and dueling, respectively). Some principles and processes formerly considered unethical become ethical (e.g., charging interest on loans, and economic capitalism and chemo-therapy, respectively). And to make things even more complicated, there often develops a rationale for exceptions to the ordinary ethical norm.

For the various ethics systems of principles and processes to be healthy, meaningful and manageable, both principles and processes must be in constant states of development, evolution and revolution. Thus, we must avoid taking refuge in a few preferred principles in order to avoid healthy growth or genuinely new issues. We must also beware of becoming so shallow and unhealthy as to have simplistic or silly principles. Likewise, we must reform and revise ethical processes (even some ancient ones) some of whose effectiveness have diminished and even become destructive (e.g., tribal prejudices, cultural hatreds and superstitious beliefs) in the various 21st Century, cosmopolitan, multicultural ethical frames of reference. (Yes, there are numerous healthy ethical systems in the world.) And, we must avoid having ethical processes which are far too complicated for ordinary society members to grasp, understand and find effective in ordinary daily life. All ethics is personal. The ultimate ethical question is how both the collective society and society's individual members are helped by the ethical principles and ethical processes we embrace and use.

Healthy ethical dynamics between and among ethical principles and ethical processes are crucial to making good sense a way of life.

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Active Ethical Thinking

Perhaps we've all had the experience of being in an unpleasant, distasteful and messy situation which demanded that we make an ethical choice among undesirable options. In the midst of the anguish, we yearned for the problem to be a clear-cut, "black or white" no-brainer. But, it didn't happen! Reality has a way of not going away whether we deny it or wish it away!

But, happily, we got through those trying times. And, here we are, to live another day, and to engage in more of those very messy life situations. In fact, every life has them. We can avoid them sometimes, but not completely. In fact, such challenges can bring out the best from within us. But, what were we doing? And how did we do it?

WHAT were we doing? We were engaging life fully, as thoughtfully and intuitively as we could, with our abilities. We were actually working hard at "active ethical thinking," i.e., grappling with the messiness of life using the various values, hopes and realities of which life is made. Among the first principles of engaging reality is the acknowledgment that life is messy. One's willingness to engage that complexity in noble and virtuous ways is what makes life a thoughtfully ethical endeavor.

But, HOW did we do it? There were a number of dynamic tools we used even if we were not aware of them.

The Accurate Perception of Reality: Whether the situation developed slowly or suddenly, whether we liked it or not, we had to figure out what was going on with sufficient truth so as to be able to engage realistically and appreciate what was happening. Naming the problem truthfully is the first step in coping with reality. Inaccurate labeling is always destructive.

Thoughtful Consideration: One must have thought about what was happening and what might be the possible ways of responding. We had to be realistic, intelligent and wise all at the same time. Some of this effort was intellectual (i.e., reasoned out) and some was intuitive (i.e., more instinctively felt). This might have happened very fast because some issues are nearly instantaneous in their demands and require quick response.

Engagement with Reality: Dealing with the truth and applying genuine abilities to the situation is the real business of life. This might have included everything from philosophical insights to the survival instinct. But, all our human intelligence and intuition worked together to allow us to engage the situation well enough to be effective.

An Ethical Frame of Reference: In other words, the contexts and perspectives from which we worked -- our background experiences and memories, the information we possessed and our abilities to process all that information applying the ethical principles and lessons we have learned - determined much of how we approached the issue. From such a frame of reference we engaged the problem applying wisdom and taking risks all at the same time.

Once I had to compose a definition of "being moral" in order to teach a class of gifted high school students. It is quite challenging to put a huge concept into a few words, but here is the definition I crafted: To be moral means to freely do the truth in justice and in love.

By elaborating on those four components (freedom, truth, justice and love) I was able to describe and nuance the messiness of life from the perspective of active ethical thinking. Active ethical thinking is not merely about avoiding the wrong and embracing the right. (Believe it or not, one can arguably avoid breaking any of the famous 10 Commandments by merely doing nothing at all!) Active ethical thinking is about engaging life as fully, intelligently and wisely as possible so as to be good and do well all at the same time. Active ethical thinking is possibly the most effective approach to making good sense a way of life!

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Ethics - The Beating of the Heart in Business and in Life

Ethics is all around us. Just turn on the radio or TV, open up a newspaper and you can read about how a variety of people are handling this critical issue of ethics.

Ethics originated from the Greek word ethos that means character. Today we use ethics to mean someone who demonstrates high character to positive behavior. Ethics goes to the heart of individuals' behaviors.

With the political season in full swing, we can truly understand how ethics are the beating heart in business and in life as all candidates share their business backgrounds. I read an editorial discussing the right to vote in the Indiana primary and in this discussion stated "Limbaugh with questionable ethics". What is interesting this is the first time I have read this qualifier given in our area of Northwest Indiana where many of the elected officials have questionable ethics. One would think it would put the same phrase after the majority of those running for national office.

Another political ad that ran in the state of Indiana talked about how this candidate would not "sell Indiana's assets." The current Indiana governor, Mitch Daniels, did not sell state's assets, but leased them.

Gov. Daniels borrowed a strategy from Mayor Daley (Mayor of Chicago, IL) who also leased a major highway. A lease allows the owner to retain all rights such as in leasing an apartment. This candidate's business ethics not to mention business acumen and self leadership from my perspective are at best questionable.

Much emphasis is directed to business C Level executives who make millions of dollars compared to average workers. Yes, some of these C Level individuals are unethical. Others just worked really hard to get to where they wanted to go. Yet, it appears that those in private industry, Limbaugh included, are held to a higher standard than elected officials who are entrusted with the public's trust. Does this really make sense?

The demonstration of self leadership through individual character and this includes business ethics should be consistent for everyone. This consistency begins with each of us as we conduct our daily business actions.

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Top 10 Things That Improve Work Ethic

10. Have a ridiculously comfortable desk chair: The nicer your chair is, the longer you can stand to sit in it before your desk without having to get up because you're antsy. And of course if you're antsy and walking around the office with a general aimlessness, you're not working.

9. Make a To-Do List: Lists are great because the simple act of making the list gives you something to do in those moments of lost energy when you don't actually want to be working. By making a list you'll find yourself doing something remotely work related, and you may simply motivate yourself by looking at the sheer length of a list of things you have to get accomplished! (The Tasks feature in Microsoft Outlook works great for this.)

8. Be Better Than Someone: You don't have a lot of control over this, so pick your target wisely. Nothing makes people feel better about themselves than feeling like they're better than someone else. Choose your target- it could be a parent, sibling, friend, or even a lackluster coworker. The smug sense of satisfaction you get from besting this person will be enough to keep you driven every day to never lose your edge.

7. Set up Google Reader or Technorati: You can tell yourself that you're just taking time out of your busy day to keep up to date with the latest industry news, but what you're really doing is reading a few industry blogs intertwined with Popsugar or Best Week Ever. If having your own personal interest blogs mixed in with the industry ones make it easier to remember to read blogs, do it. You may not be enriching your working knowledge as much as you'd like to think, but the industry stuff will stick and you'll be able to bust out interesting relevant factoids in meetings and the latest celebrity gossip at the water cooler.

6. Piss off your Friends and Family: This is a surefire way to free up your time for more work at the office. If everyone you know outside of work is mad at you, that removes the temptation (or option?) to go out after work for drinks or spend your weekends poolside with the family. Who needs weekends anyway? Just lost opportunities for more work!

5. Supplies: Make sure you have the supplies you need to do your job. If you're running out of staples, get some. If a certain program would increase your productivity 10%, ask for it and make your case. It's much easier to do the job when you have everything necessary. Once you get into the niche where there's not much else for you to ask for you'll be able to apply all these tools to hone your skills and do a better job. You have to prove to the company that you're worth investing in.

4. Money: Of course, that's what we're all in this game for, right? Get the jobs that get you the khakis that get you the chicks. I believe it's probably a fact that your work ethic and dedication to the company goes up exponentially as your salary goes up. Don't be afraid to ask for a raise every year if you've seriously been rockin' at work. Be sure to do something that makes the bigwigs take note and want to give you more money and you'll find it's much easier to get out of bed in the morning!

3. Befriend your Coworkers: If you have a vested interest in the people around you, inherently that comes with a vested interest in how work goes for them. A job well done on your friendly coworkers' part will often help make your job easier, and vice versa. As long as you have a mutual respect for what your coworkers are trying to accomplish and how that fits in with your goal, you will be more willing to go the extra mile on your end. Eventually your coworkers will reciprocate by making something easier for you and it will become a productive cycle.

2. OCD: OCD, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, really helps in those tedious projects that just need doing. Spend hours late into the night working at something as boring as updating a database for formatting for the simple reason that everything HAS to be right. Not only with this give you a false motivation to get a project done, but your supervisors will gladly take advantage of this affliction of yours and praise the results!

1. Care: It's as simple, really, as caring about doing a good job. Have some pride in what it is you produce or how it is you help the company overall to succeed. If you genuinely care about doing your job well, that's really all you'll need to motivate yourself and have a great work ethic.

Business online blog

Banks Change Rules For Whose Benefit?

Recently we believed the tax advantage to having all our credit card debt moved to an equity account would be simple and painfree. We set the plan in motion made an appointment, signed papers, tried calling to verify the loan payment and loan agreement during the 3 day cool off period. No one answered the phone at the branch and there were no clear answers from the coroporate office. We soon received our first scheduled payment invoice. The bank had set up the plan to be paid off in five years. We signed a contract for a 30 year loan, and not a 5 year loan. So they could change it to 25, but not 30, and we would still have to make a high payment. Which bank, you might ask? After seeing the news that 7 to 8 thousand homes are foreclosed every day, I believe it could be any bank.

I am receiving an interest free transfer check for our credit card for the same amount, so I plan to pay the bank off instead of being bothered with the ethics of a bank that quotes great rates for new clients, but much higher for existing clients. There are proactive steps we can take when a bank is unethical. The court system is not always the best place, but it can be valuable for those who cannot negotiate with a bank.

I tell insurance sales people all the time that if they are not ethical with me, someone else might be even more unethical to their family. They are the one who stands in the way of ethics and kind treatment. Each one of us makes a difference where we stand and how we allow others to treat us, as well as how we treat others.

(c) 2008 Charlotte Fairchild

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There Is No Such Thing As Business Ethics

Are you ethical in your business dealings? Are you ethical in your personal dealings? There are many people that would say that your business ethics and your personal ethics have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but truthfully they have everything to do with each other because there is no such thing as business ethics. You are either ethical in life or your not!

I look at the state of business in America today and I believe that the lack of ethics and character are a large part of the downturn in our economy over the past years. Some may say that there have always been scandals in business and government and I would agree with that but at no other time in history has it ever been as excepted as it is today. In today's society people think it's just business as usual if they have to lie and cheat to get ahead. As terrible as that sounds it is true! Where do people get the idea that being unethical is ok? In large part I think they see the scandals of former presidents, CEO's, right down to the people on their children's school boards making unethical decisions and doing unethical things. This problem will only continue to get worse until we, the American citizens stand up and say no more! We need to begin teaching Americas youth that there is right and there is wrong. To many people are to busy worrying about doing what it takes to get ahead whatever the cost , to realize the example we are setting for the next generation.

Are you willing to cheat on your golf score? If you go to the grocery store and the cashier gives you change for a $20 bill when you only gave her a $10 bill do you correct her? The sad thing is that most people are willing to cheat on a golf score and would not correct the cashier. With that being said if people are willing to cheat on their golf score than why would they not be willing to cheat on their taxes or not follow through with a business deal? People don't think of not correcting the cashier as stealing but it really is! If someone is willing to steal from the grocery store where they shop, than what would stop them from stealing from your companies expense account? There in lies the problem. Now you have to understand I don't come to you with this all figured out nor am I up on a high horse looking down on anybody but I do believe we all need to work a lot harder on making honest and ethical decisions in our lives and having a zero tolerance policy for those we associate with . We need some true leader to stand up and say no more. It starts as just a few people and then it becomes infectious and will continue to spread. What we are striving for is to restore ourselves as men and women, to rewind to a time when you could seal a deal with a handshake and your good word after all, a mans word is his worth (this applies to women too). It is up to you and me to demand of those we deal with on a daily basis to have high moral standards and a strong code of ethics!

What steps will you take to ensure your future in business and in life? I know for me it is a daily battle to do as I say to be on time to tell the complete truth and point out unethical things to those who are doing them and help rectify the situation. Let us stand together as one united nation and demand that our government, businesses and families stand on a foundation of strong principles and values. Only we can make the difference! Here's to a brighter future and a stronger nation, god bless!

To Your Success

Chad DeMay

change management

Beware of Fake Consumer Protection Websites

You've found a product. You think it's good. But you're just not sure. What will tip you over the edge to make that purchase decision?

For many people it's reviews on consumer protection websites. These are sites that warn you to stay away from certain products while reviewing and recommending others.

The problem is that many of these consumer protection websites are set up by the owners of the products themselves. In fact some consumer protection companies in the past have gone so far as to set themselves up as a 501(3)(C) organization with nonprofit status in order to lend even more credibility to their recommendations.

And don't be bamboozled by website names. Just because a site has "authority" or "official" or even "government" in it's name doesn't mean it's a credible site. Anybody can buy a domain name with these words in it. You'll probably recognize this as a offshoot of the old direct mail trick of sending mailings in official looking envelopes. Anyone who's ever opened up one of those mailings and become instantly annoyed will know what I mean.

The worst part is that fake consumer protection sites are probably found most often by people searching for work at home jobs or work at home businesses. And often these people are desperate to find work and make quick decisions without regard to logic.

Legitimate consumer protection sites can be broken down into several categories. The following are just a few of these categories.

The first consumer protection sites are ones run by the government. Any site ending with ".gov" is a legitimate U.S. government site. Many sites ending with .us are state or local U.S. government sites. But don't always count on it because it is possible for individuals and companies to register .us domains. However, it's usually pretty easy to figure out if a .us site is a legitimate government site or not.

Then there are well know consumer protection sites such as BBB.org, Fraud.org, of course ConsumerReports.org are sites that have proven themselves to be reliable over time. However you still need to use these sites in conjunction with other resources. For example, just because the BBB lists multiple complaints against a company doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad company. You still need to know the volume of business the company does since obviously 100 complaints against a company that does 500 transactions per year is much different than 100 complaints against a company that does 500,000 transactions per year.

One other thing you should know about well known, legitimate consumer protection sites is that sometimes websites will hijack their logo and place it on their website to make their own site look more credible. In other words, they are using an unapproved logo on their website. There are two extra steps you should take when you see a consumer protection organization's logo on a website. One, you should click on the logo as most legitimate consumer protection logos are clickable and will take you to the members directory. If the logo isn't clickable you should see if there's a members directory on the consumer protection website and try to locate the website in the members directory.

A trickier area is affiliate review sites which generate their profits by generating commissions from products sold via their reviews. The paradox is that some of the best reviews of products are found at affiliate review sites that have a loyal following because many affiliate review websites have built up a loyal following and they aren't willing to make a bad recommendation to make a buck and lose their audience. To evaluate the reliability of an affiliate review site don't just look at the products they do and don't recommend. You should also look at what negative comments they make about the products that they do recommend and whether they identify for whom the product may be a good fit and for whom it may not be a suitable fit. Certainly there is no perfect product and there is also no perfect product for everyone, so if a reviewer claims to have found a perfect product, be very wary of the recommendation.

There are certainly other categories of consumer protection websites and other tricks that the bad guys play to make you believe that their legitimate. But hopefully this information will help you navigate the often tricky waters of product reviews and consumer protection websites.

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Keep Your Business From Doing Risky Business

There are a lot of things that a business has to think of to avoid "risky business". One of them is facing & dealing with the EEOC (EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION). Many companies do not want to face an EEOC complaint. So company managers & owners should treat everyone fairly in order to reduce the chance of having a complaint filed against you and your company. You are not immune to having complaints filed against you but you can lessen the chance. If specific measurements are not in place and applied equally, a company is open to potential exposure and a "risky business" situation.

How do you minimize some of your exposure to charges of "unfair treatment"? Begin by objectively positioning each and every job, using a comprehensive position description.

A solid, up-to-date description is essential for all positions. It is critical that each and every job description be clearly and objectively written so that all parties understand. Also, so no one can justify major differences of opinion or make accusations that you have treated people differently. You will be measuring specific items, and everyone will be measured the same way.

The major elements of any position description should include these items:

reports toprimary duties and responsibilities success behaviors and attitudes soft-skill competencies performance measurementsexperience, education and special considerations

Each of these factors measure success in the job. Make sure that all employees are measured against these expectations--irrespective of race, gender, etc....

Managers should began to outline the primary duties and responsibilities for their areas of responsibility, that's the easy part.Then a manager could have a rough outline of "what" each job entails. An example: "Sell to existing clients. Develop new relationships."

A sometimes a difficult part of the process can be in outlining specific behaviors, attitudes and soft-skill competencies for each position. Each participant should be asked to complete an objective questionnaire that measures these critical factors. Once everyone sees the results of the input, it can be easy to add the "how" factors to the job descriptions, along with the underlying, measurable attitudes/ values that would enhance success. Managers will be able to prioritize and add several soft-skill competencies to the descriptions.

Through this process, managers may discover their relief, that they could objectively measure success in every job. They will now have methods for measuring each one of the identified success factors against the same standard.

Performance measurements may be equally difficult to develop. Some may have never considered adding this element to a position description. Management may end up in agreement on several specific, measurable performance objectives. Here is one example: "Achieves or exceeds all daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual sales objectives within an assigned sales territory."

With the toughest part of the work done, the next step is to define the specific types of experiences and education each position requires. Managers may discovered that if they have some general requirements for experience and education, they would actually broaden the base of possible candidates and could begin to think about including a wider variety of candidates for the job.

Make the final element "Special Considerations." For some jobs, this can be simple: "Ability to travel as needed." Sometimes managers hire salespeople who can not or will not travel.

To avoid this,give each person in a sales position a clear understanding of the jobs requirements. Better-qualified employees can be hired; performance ratings are up; employee discipline is down. Everyone is being measured against the same standard.

Risky business? Some managers may not think so. By doing this, a manager can minimized the risk to their business. Then they will be measuring all aspects of a persons performance fairly and consistently against specific, measurable expectations.

Business online blog

Business Ethics Is All About Your Character

Imagine walking up to a restaurant for an early morning breakfast and before going in, you make a decision to buy a newspaper from one of the various vending machines. However, before you can deposit your coinage, you observed the following:

Two small business owners or possibly businessmen walked up to another newspaper vending machine. One deposited the proper coins and opens the door to take his paid for newspaper. Then he asks his companion if he would like one as well? A second newspaper is removed without payment. The companion then jokes about receiving 2 newspapers for the price of one.

I personally witnessed this scenario. What I did was to take the necessary coins from my own pocketbook and deposit them into the machine. I opened the door and then closed the door without taking a newspaper. The two small business owners or executives now stared at me in disbelief.

As I approached the restaurant door, one of the businessmen opened the door, but he could not look me in the eyes. He knew he did wrong, but he thought that no one else would see. And he probably else thought that everyone else does it so why not?

Business ethics is all about character. And character is all about doing the right thing when no one else is looking.

I call this self leadership because if you cannot lead yourself well by demonstrating character when no one else is looking how can you lead others?

One of the most consistent complaints that I hear from small business owners is about the lack of work ethics such as employees who do not give an hour of work for an hour of pay. Yet, how many of their executives, supervisors and managers are doing the same thing?

Possibly, these two small business owners thought that rank had its privileges or that they had already paid their fair share? Earning a certain position does merit some additional benefits, but rank does not give permission to steal, to be disrespectful, to be unethical.

Given that our actions are open to everyone to see and hear, we in the business world must be consistently executing the right actions through our work ethics demonstrated by our self leadership skills. For failure to do so, will only cause us harm sometime down the road or the path to the restaurant door when we fail to notice who is observing our business ethics.

Transparency Motivates Understanding

Life is too short for all the hostility that lies beneath the surface of our society caused by misunderstandings, disagreements and lies. Is talk so cheap that words have lost their value? What can you do to guarantee that what you say professionally and personally holds value, motivates understanding and achieves effectiveness?

Assumptions let mistakes accumulate while dishonesty continues to multiply. When you hear contradictions, do you go beyond the surface and find the missing pieces? How many times do issues surface later, when you realize that you didn't understand what the person was asking for or explaining to you?

The ability to see through the spin associated with what you hear takes familiarity or research to substantiate the information. Your decisions are only as good as the facts and data you base them on. How reliable is the person you're taking with?

When in doubt, ask yourself these two questions.

Does it make sense?

Does this feel right?

If the answer to either question is no, the direction you're going in needs clarification. When you hear excuses or contradictions, the story is changing - beware. You can prevent deception by being actively conscious. Check out the specifics and when you find inconsistencies deal directly with that individual. You verify who's trustworthy or not.

Always clarify so you know for sure.

Patience and common sense represents qualities that enable you to listen to all sides without jumping to conclusions. The more you understand why people do the things they do, there's less stress to contend with. When you acknowledge and accept the reality of the situation, that honest interpretation adds value to your evaluation.

Understanding requires a higher level of interpretation than simply knowing.

We're all totally distinctive, yet exceptional. There's a part of you inside of everyone. Finding out what you have in common with someone instead of what you don't like, adds positive energy. If you're only looking for the person's weakness, your insecurities are out weighting your potential.

When words resonate attitudes with derogatory or condescending that approach is critical and defensive, not advantageous. But when words are complimentary and enlightening, the energy of the conversation is encouraging and optimistic.

Transparency holds the truth-value of your logic and actions combined.

Doing the right thing for the right reasons strengthens your sensibilities. When you're not falling backwards-correcting mistakes, the value of your time increases. Your decisions are comprehensive and you're providing solutions not excuses, moving forward being more productive.

Eliminate the nonsense of lies, that will always come back to haunt you. This incredible consciousness grows stronger with your desire for the truth.

Ethics share all these positive qualities when done consistently. Your business becomes less chaotic when you accept responsibility for your actions and accountability for the outcome. Credibility comes with understanding your associates and inspiring better standards. When you walk the talk and show by example, these illustrate the added value of your effectiveness.

The Secret Of How Not To Interact With A Qualified Network Marketing Sales Lead

You hear it everywhere around the net..."the business is in the leads," without leads you have no business. You can find e-books and information about how to build up leads. But there is very few information about how to treat leads. And this is a very important matter because if you don't care about your leads you'll lose them as fast as you get them.

Network marketers are only looking for leads. The fact is that are thousands or millions of leads around but even so it is difficult to find a qualified lead. It takes time to extract this qualified lead out from the mass of other leads for your business and integrate it into your marketing network. When you have this lead integrated into your marketing network you than can make it shine for your purpose. But in order to make it shine there are some tricks and tips to observe on how to accomplish. There is an endless amount of information on a daily basis but all of them revolve about how to persuade any individual to buy from your company or to get him into your company and then you can offer him every time your product and this way pull out money like a money printer.

But is that really the case? Do most internet marketers, because of their need to pull money, forget that not everybody likes to be bombarded with all the information every day? It is good to be aggressive in the internet marketing but should there be also considered that not everybody likes to have all that crab in their daily mail? As a marketer you also have to consider the human side of your prospect and customer. All this composed information tells you how to persuade your customer you pull out his purse and how to attack him to pay you. But there is little being said about how not to interact with a qualified network marketing sales lead.

Sure, some training material will go so far as to advise you to know or to learn your material and not try to pull on over on the prospective lead; but even this is valuable advise it doesn't tell you or give you a list of items to avoid. The list of how not to interact with a prospect in the network marketing sales is relatively short.

1. Stay away from race, color, creed, nationality, and gender. It really does not matter if you personally believe that women make better salespeople than men, or that religious folks are more honest in their business dealings than those who do not profess any belief; even so it is not always the truth. These type of believes are sometimes very offensive and even your most qualified prospect will certainly not want to be caught up doing business with someone she or he perceives to be some kind of a fanatic.

2. The failure to present the company's information from a different angle than the one used in the marketing brochures. This false or incorrect interpretation of your marketing brochures will give your prospect the impression that you are not a serious marketer or that you don't know the printed facts and therefore lead to an insult of the lead's intelligence.

3. Don't answer your cell phone as you are spending time with your prospect; even if it might be a potential customer calling. Let always your prospect feel that he or she is the most important person in your universe. Your prospect needs this feeling of trust in order to integrate in your down line. He needs to feel that you care for him or her. Every prospect without this trust is difficult to convince to stay in your business.

4. Do not flaunt your wealth. Dress nice and do not show off with a Cartier watch of Armani suit. Just be normal and show your prospect discreetly what your business can do for a dedicated person without actually calling any overt attention to it.

5. But do not meet with your prospect as though you are unsuccessful. That means that you show up with cut off jeans, sneakers with holes, unwashed hair, and a free ball point pen from a hotel. This exposure of you will not inspire confidence to a person who is thinking of signing on as your network marketing sales lead. You as an entrepreneur, business person or sales agent, need to dress your part. Clothes make the man or woman.

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Be Ethical In Your Dealings

Customers are what business is all about. Yet they are too often taken for granted by those who provide services and goods. How the consumer views the marketer is critical to successfully promoting their products.

Yet many marketers try to deceive or hide the truth from the very customers that they depend on. Some marketers look on their potential customers as sheep that are too stupid to see when they are being misled. Got news for you people are not sheep and are a lot more intelligent than they are given credit. The only difference between the seller and the buyer is that one has something to sell and the other seeks purchase certain goods or services.

Both the marketer and the consumer are human beings with varied views and beliefs. No one in this world wants to be deceived, conned, or mistreated. Then why would someone who is in business for themselves want to tarnish their name and reputation by misleading customers because someday down the road the consumer will become aware of this and discontinue using said merchant. Sometimes the authorities of the merchant's location may find such practices harmful and bring legal proceedings against them.

Businesses that want to be long standing and successful should be ethical in their dealings with the public. Just because someone appears to be getting outstanding results from doing things less than ethical does not give the good business person some green light to do the same. Following in the footsteps of those that are less than honest may seem glamorous to some but the final outcome may be not too favorable to those who choose such a path.

Anything in life worth doing takes commitment and dedicated work. A good merchant seeks to provide the best services and goods to those they serve. A good merchant is always concerned about their customer needs by offering great customer service when a problem arises. The merchant should seek to provide complete and honest details about the services they provide and the goods that they sell.

When sales and service procedures change for those you service be as detailed as possible about changes and how it will affect the consumer. The more open and forthright you are with your customer the fewer problems and misunderstandings there should be. You will never satisfy everyone no matter how upfront and honest you maybe that are just something that happens from time to time. Treating those you serve with kindness and respect will help smooth the way when some misunderstanding does arise. Be quick to respond to problems your customers may present to you seeking to find solutions to remedy their problem. Their problem may seem silly to you but to the one who has the problem it is serious matter that demands your full attention.

The bottom line is the more you are able to make your customers happy the end result is that your life should be more successful and that makes you happy. The merchant's main goal is to provide the best benefits to the potential consumer and convert them into life long customers of your products and services. How your customers and potential customers perceive your character and ethics has a direct bearing on how you will succeed or fail in your business pursuits.

change management

Ethics & Rolfing

Ethics is defined as being a set of principles of right conduct, and as a Rolfer the therapeutic relationship necessitates this structure as much as it is defined by it. Les Kertay, Advanced Rolfer, defines ethics as the principles of a therapeutic relationship. In this brief review I will discuss insight into how and why problems arise in the therapeutic relationship spoken to at the 2002 Rolf Institute Annual Meeting, and give general principles/guidelines into begging the question "What is Rolfing?"

The basic assumption with Rolfing is that complaints stem from a failure of the therapeutic relationship or ethics. "What to do about what is", is the Rolfers ontological resource that should be used when engaging a past, current, or future client. It appears to be as much a philosophy as it is a psychology, a complete lifestyle, which in and of itself begs the question "What is Rolfing?" All health care relations are therapeutic relations and the phenomena known, as Transference/Counter transference that exists between a Rolfer and his clients is palpable, in all meetings. The nature of the work will magnetize expectations of fix-it sessions and or desires to process emotions through the sessions, this is where it can start to get sticky. The Rolfer is always responsible for the framework of the relationship that always includes Transference/Counter transference so the boundaries and framework should begin with an Informed Consent form. This will always serve as a resource when dealing with unrecognized/unexpressed expectations of a client, a misunderstanding. NEVER HAVE SEX WITH A CLIENT. Do not make exceptions; if you do you have just changed the context of the relationship! Do not do anything with a client that you cannot discuss openly and comfortably. Remember that clients may be seeking boundaries by testing them.

Problem clients can include those involved with workman's compensation or car accidents, which means an attorney is involved or soon will be so keep no secrets and give no guarantees. It is always best to be yourself in dealing with clients because you never know when you could be ordered to testify under oath or end the relationship. Make rules, don't break them. Never say, Rolfing can "do" anything, especially about pain, do not create expectations. It is also wise to separate the intake interview and the first session to give both parties time to gauge the potential or lack thereof. Some clients will jump around from every Rolfer in town so as to navigate control of the therapeutic relations. Don't get caught in the Victim Triangle.

"What is Rolfing?" Rolfing is an inquiry to the optimal functioning of the human being, so learn to tolerate ambiguity. It is a science, an art, a philosophy and psychology. It is action and non-action. It requires the practitioner to immerse him or herself in it completely, to merge with it. Honor the process by being completely unattached to expectations. Rolfing is the optimal functioning of the therapeutic relationship; so don't offer what the client doesn't want. Don't get caught in the trap of "trying" to legitimize Rolfing as if it needed recognition. This does not need recognition, it facilitates resource and points to a potential of higher order that does, and this is the manifestation of health in the context of the therapeutic relationship. Rolfing is always changing and adapting to the way of the human being. This, applied appropriately, is ethics at it's best.

In 2002 Les Kertay spoke at the annual meeting about ethics and therapeutic relationships and it was my intent to communicate the content within the context of Rolfing as he did. Ethics are the principles of the therapeutic relationship and Rolfing is our gift as somatic therapist to engage life fully.

The Certified Rolfing Ten Series has the potential to reduce pain and release tension in the connective and myofascial tissue of the body associated with TMJ, CTS, RLS, Fibromyalgia, Sciatica, Fascitis, Bunions, Scoliosis, and Cerebral Palsy. Fascial asymmetries can cause foot, leg, knee, hip, back, shoulder, neck, arm, hand, and head pain; integration therapy is necessary. Orthopedic, Chiropractic, Physical, and Massage Therapist recognize Rolfing and Rolf Movement as premium pain management utilizing Structural, Functional, and Postural Integration. John Barton, Certified Rolfer and Rolfing-Fort Worth-Dallas-Austin-Denton-Arlington.

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Handling The Problem Employee

A friend of mine owns one of the largest independent web agencies on the East Coast. He is sharp, takes no prisoners and runs his company like a well-oiled machine. Business is great these days. Over the past five years he's had his ups and downs, but after reviewing the bigger picture, he is taking very cautious expansion steps. When last we spoke, he was focused on a larger space, getting investors and attracting top talent in full-time positions. Our phone conversation went something like this:

"We hired a full-time writer with great credentials and a killer resume."
"And the problem is?" I like to tease him for maximum effect...I knew where he was headed.
"Well, it turns out he can't write worth spit!"
"So rescind your offer and look for someone else."
"You don't understand...He starts full-time employment in two weeks."
"You signed an employment contract?"
"Yes."
"How did you not find this out sooner?"
"His references checked out and his writing samples were perfect...what should I do?"
"Did you talk to your lawyer?"
"Yes."

I come from the old school of management, so I suggested he fire the guy and let the chips fall where they may. But times are different. Firing someone when they are about to transition from one job to the other can leave even a small company in a precarious situation. 94% of all lawsuits in the world take place in the United States. Suing companies is big business here.

It turns out, my friend had done his due diligence. He saw no reason not to sign the employment contract. Mr. Incompetent put in his two weeks notice and was just about to start. Over a two-week period they had him get his feet wet by freelancing on some projects. It became apparent that this guy had grossly misrepresented himself. After sending me some samples, I realized this future employee was writing below a 6th grade level. At $85,000 a year, this had the potential to be a major lawsuit.

It seemed so cut and dry - employee can't do the job so fire him. But why can't he be fired before he starts?

I spoke with another colleague and friend Bruce Fuller, head of Human Resources at Newmark Night Frank of New York City. His response comes from 20 years as a human resource professional...

"To do this justice we have to crank back the video tape and ask a question: How in the world could an offer go out to a corporate writer at that salary and you didn't know he couldn't write? The manager who hired this person should be handed their hat. I would bet you a weeks pay his old company is laughing all the way to the bar because they were able to unload this lox on you. At this point the only cheap long shot way out is hoping for an unacceptable background report (If you do them. If you don't...double shame).

Alternatively, you can hire a good labor attorney who might be able to get you out of this deal, but it isn't going to be cheap. That's pretty much it. You're stuck and have to wait for an opportunity to rightfully terminate his employment. Hopefully you didn't add insult to injury by finding this person through an outside recruiter and paying a fee on top."

Ouch. But it happens all the time - The resume is perfect; the references check out, the writing samples were lightning strikes of brilliant Kafka-esque poetry that flowed like champagne. The advertising world would bow knowing the agency had pulled a major coup. One could almost see the CASIE awards lined up in the trophy case.

The problem is, this person misrepresented himself. Discovering that a potential or current employee has pulled the wool over your eyes can feel like betrayal of the highest degree. I personally have enough war stories on this subject to write a book.

The amount of duplicity that goes into creating such a ruse is astounding. The writing samples, the stable of friends and colleagues who are willing to lie, and the total lack of self-analysis begs to wonder if this person is best suited for life as a CIA agent instead of a writing career. Most of us know when it is time to step up to the next salary level. It's intuitive. (But then again, most of us have ethics and morals.) Others just want to go for the glory and the money without really taking a review of their capabilities. There's ambition and there's stupidity.

Thirty years ago this guy would have been fired. No questions asked. Incompetence was not tolerated. But today, employment law is big money, and incompetence seems to be rewarded with promotions. Driven by fear we seem to be living in a topsy-turvy world which is even worse at the executive levels. I've personally had bad managers pawned off on me only to find that they were the laughing stock of the industry. Lawyers have made it impossible to tell the truth about a former employee, and as a result, most new hires are becoming the rotten egg that gets passed from one place to another.

Over eight years ago the New York Times Magazine did a study and found that many high school students didn't know the difference between right and wrong. One of the most glaring results of the study was when teenagers were asked what defines a thief? One who steals or one who is caught stealing? More than 70% of the students answered the latter. So stealing is okay as long as you don't get caught? This is why so many bad employment stories like these are becoming the norm. It also explains why many corporations are putting into place background dossiers, blood tests, and a quick double check at the local police department, (just in case). Lying has become the norm.

Case in point: Many years ago one of my business partners hired a seasoned creative director. He did this by not going through HR, but instead, railroaded this guy down our throats. His mistaken belief was that this individual would make us competitive against the bigger agencies.

With a traditional background, this guy had just enough Internet experience on his resume to make him a shoo-in for the job. Despite having experience at the largest ad agencies in the world and a couple of years at a web agency in Chicago, something was fishy. The weird part is that we had very capable individuals already on staff with the same background; they just weren't seasoned enough for my business partner.

At five-foot-one-inch, this new creative director was a dead ringer for Davy Jones from the Monkees. From day one he treated the staff like dirt. Machiavellian in his approach to management, he couldn't understand why our staff went behind his back to complain. He vacillated from furious at those who questioned his authority, to trying to be your best buddy. Word spread quickly that Davy Jones was manic.

The next three months turned into hell. No one could control this guy. And as things got increasingly bad, employees began to quit. Worse yet, we couldn't fire him because we had signed an ironclad three-year contract. (In New York State, the contract is king). My business partners and I tried to find reasons to fire him. The only solution we had was to track every serious problem to build our case. After many discussions, he would tone down his act for a few weeks, then return to his unique, bristling style of management. His performance was great, but he was causing larger morale issues. No one wanted to work with him.

I predicted to my partners that this would end with him exploding or worse yet attacking one of our staff. Yes, his temper was that bad. I was sent away with no solutions. I am not a psychologist, but I know bipolar behavior when I see it.

Eventually, Davy Jones' anger got him in trouble. During a late night deadline, one of our art directors decided to use a different typeface for a national ad. Davy Jones decided to argue with him and eventually decided the best way to handle this situation was to strangle the living daylights out of the art director. (Imagine a five foot one inch man in high heeled cowboy boots attempting to strangle a six-foot two inch body builder with a European-American background. You get the picture of how silly this was.) That evening, our problem employee was escorted from the building in handcuffs.

If I had it to do all over again, Davy Jones would have been let go at the first sign of a problem. We lost five employees due to our inability to act. What kept us from doing so was the respect we had for our business partners' emotionally based arguments. Don't make the mistakes I did. Get rid of the problem fast. We were very lucky the employee who had been strangled didn't sue us for creating a hostile work environment.

Word on the street evidently spread, because soon afterwards, I began getting phone calls from Davy Jones' former employers telling me he was fired from his last five positions because of his violent reactions when challenged. I was told of one incident of Davy Jones' hitting the owner of the largest ad agency in Chicago. Why didn't his references tell me this earlier? Too little, too late.

So how does one handle a problem like this? Bruce Fuller gives us 3 steps to handling problem employees and the mock scenarios to justify your actions:

"This is very easy Brad. Document, document, document.

You must clearly state the problem in your documentation outlining the problem, the resolution, and the time period when the situation will be reviewed. Most importantly it must have the signature of the manager and the offending employee. If the employee is unwilling to sign the document, read it to him/her in front of a witness and have the witness sign confirming it was read to the offender.

I find that generally there are three documents needed as follows:

#1 First Offense Documentation

It has been brought to our attention that Little Johnny has been eating other people's lunches, which has been confirmed by our security camera in the fridge. Little Johnny has been told that this is a no-no and that if he continues to eat other people's ham and cheese he faces disciplinary action up to and including termination. We will review his lunch habits in one week.

#2 Second Offense Documentation

(appears that letter #1 was ineffective in changing the behavior) It has been two days since letter #1 and Little Johnny continues to eat other people's lunches. While we value Lil' J as an employee, this annoying habit must stop immediately or he will face disciplinary action up to and including termination. There will be no more warnings.

#3 Final Documentation and Termination Notice

This is a notice of termination of Little Johnny effective immediately. Despite two previous warnings he continues to eat people's lunches out of the fridge.

Don't forget that a bad employee attitude can be addressed in the same manner. No need to tolerate someone who poisons the work atmosphere.

The biggest problem is that managers delay starting the documentation process. The sooner the better."

Bruno Bettelheim in his book The Uses of Enchantment points out that when fairy tales have the moral lesson removed, we learn nothing about cause and effect. Taking responsibility for our choices is what adulthood is about. We now have an entire generation that thinks Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid and Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame both have happy endings. Haven't you noticed? No one does anything wrong these days, it's just shades of misunderstanding. You still get a trophy for showing up and CEO's get millions despite driving a company into the ground. This seems to be the result of removing the lessons of responsibility that makes a civilization last.

These stories are not generational either. I have many a story about older, wiser and seasoned individuals with no moral compass. The coming years are going to get sticky. Word on the street is that the economy is getting bumpy and unemployment is going to jump. Many of the larger firms are adding more counsel in anticipation of the glut of lawsuits coming down the road. After all, it is easier to sue than get another job. If America is to be competitive globally, we're all going to have to grow up.

Most employees believe that if their work is exemplary their behavior will be tolerated. "Why are you concerned with my lateness, I met my sales quota?" or "What's the big deal, I stay late every night?" and my favorite, "You have no idea what it takes to do this job." These and many more have been thrown in my face. I guess they're right - I just don't get it. But at the end of my life, we'll compare resumes. I don't reward mediocrity in myself or in others, and neither should you.

When employees are coddled along and treated to soft management, they learn nothing. It's not personal, it's business. When someone is repositioned and told why, they're given the chance to improve. Increase performance, or change professions. One employee whom I fired ran into me years later. He thanked me for firing him; it was the push he needed to wake up. After that, he took his jobs seriously, eventually winding up at MTV. "I wouldn't have found my way if you hadn't fired me. Thank you."

Over the years I have developed my own system for figuring out who is a bad apple. My system would be frowned upon by most HR professionals and employment lawyers. I don't care. It is my company, not yours and when shareholders want maximum return, it is even more important that I do my own due diligence - my way.

Always remember, people exaggerate the truth on their resumes. Look for someone who seems to have built a career slowly and strategically. Job-hopping may be trendy, but it still smells of "Can't get along with others." Double check the references, and be creative when asking questions, after all, this person is an investment in the success of your company. We don't buy things, we buy experiences.

When confronted with a bad seed, document every mistake. Act fast, and keep your company lean. Do not act from fear, act from a strategic position. You'll be happy and so will your staff. Winners like to work with winners.

Thanks for reading,

Brad Szollose

May I suggest:

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Cultural Values and Personal Ethics

Picture back to when you were in elementary school. It is a warm summer day, everyone is outside playing on the playground. Some children are playing on the swings, some on the monkey bars, while others decide they want to play kickball. After choosing captains, they start to pick who is going to be on their winning team. The captains quickly pick their friends, which goes by quick and then there are the few geeks or nerds left to pick from. Being not so popular growing up, I was one of the last few kids to be picked. It wasn't that I didn't know how to play kickball but I wasn't an outgoing person in my childhood.

But how does personal, organizational, and cultural values come into play with my position as a manager and recruiter for a banking call center? How can past experiences help or hinder future events?

Personal Values

As the years went by I started to open up and began making friends in high school. I tried to be with the "in crowd" at the same time trying to be nice to the other not so popular students. Often times I felt a "gut" feeling about doing the right thing, other times I went with the popular decision; right or wrong. But as I was growing up, I started to realize that the right decision was always the best for me. It helped me become ethical not only in my personal life, but also in my professional life. It started to define my personal values and has guided me through tough decisions, popular or not, for which I haven't regretted.

Personal values are something I believe is learned. It goes back to the continual debate over nature versus nurture. I believe my values came from both. I grew up in a two-parent home with an older sibling. Both of my parents worked for a living and I learned most of my values from them. They brought me up to be respectful, hard working, and honest and most of all treat everyone the way you want to be treated. I learned not to take money for granted because we didn't have much. I wore hand-me-down clothing from friends and relatives. It taught me that money isn't what makes you happy but you need to like yourself for who you are and not what you own. Now as a hiring manager for Compass Bank, I look for similar values in the potential employees. I ask them questions about their childhood, past experiences that changed their values and what are they looking for in their career. I also like to share my values of who I am and how I advanced my career. Finally I ask them what are some of the values they are looking for in an organization?

Organizational Values

Every organization, big or small has a set of organizational values. Some of these values are in line with our own values and clearly defined, other are vague.

In the paper Finding Talent: A Study of Contacts and Careers (Hines, 2003) shows four different methods used on hiring employees from entry-level to executive positions. Each of the individuals interviewed stated they don't follow their organizational values when interviewing and hiring employees. For entry-level positions, 80% use job postings in the newspaper or the Internet, career fairs and employee referrals. For middle to upper management, more then 50% say the hire based on word of mouth and not so much of past experience. And even others stated they try to hire previous employees they worked with before at other corporations. Are these personal values of these individuals? Does the organization stand behind these types of values? Or does cultural values come into play?

Cultural Values

Cultural values are a part of what makes up the world. The United States is called the "melting pot" since it became independent from the British in the 1700's. Many individuals came to America looking for a new beginning at the same time they brought their cultures or traditions with them. As we become more of a multi-cultural society some of the traditions that were predominate during the early periods of American history are not so clear today. In early years, Italians only married other Italians, Germans only married other Germans, so on and so forth. Now, cultural or traditions are not a factor.

I view cultural values as a great way to understand someone's values. It brings into light some of their personal values and the potential employees up bringing. I was raised in two different parts of the country. I was born in Western Pennsylvania and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida. Both parts of the country have different cultural values. In Pennsylvania, cultural values were placed on tradition. My grandfather on my dad's side of the family was a skilled craftsman. He was very handy in his trade for which he used to provide for his family. He built his own homes. He worked very hard everyday in manual labor. On the other hand, being raised in Florida, the cultural values were different in the respect of not keeping traditions. They wanted to be different and on the leading edge of new things. These were not the same values I was use to being exposed to in Pennsylvania.

As an adult, I enjoy learning about different cultures and the values they place on individuals. It gives me an insight to what type of person they were in the past and hopefully what type of employee they will be in the future. But is cultural values a good tool to use when hiring? Based on reading of The Role of Literacy in Individuals and Nations (Berryman, 1994), some cultures view experience and education in different ways. Emphasis on continuing education or continual heritage depends on your cultural. It could also depend on whom you know in the company that could help you get hired or promoted. For example, in the former USSR, only gifted students were given the opportunity to continue their education passed the eighth grade. Those whom didn't display exceptional intelligence either went into the military academy or continued a trade or skill needed in the economy. This is opposite of our own culture and the opportunities provided to everyone.

Ethical Dilemmas

As I stated in the beginning of the paper, I still have a difficult time trying to hire candidates for open positions at Compass Bank. We try to hold regular job fairs each month with the Maricopa Department of Economic Security. During these job fairs, I have the opportunity to speak to individuals from all walks of life. Most of them are middle to late age workers who lost their job because they couldn't keep up with changing technology. I spend about fifteen minutes with these individuals to see if their personal values and past work experience will be a fit for our organization. It is a very difficult ethical dilemma trying to look past maybe the way they are dressed or how many jobs they had in the past. But my personal values help guide me in those decisions. I usually will get a gut feeling that someone isn't telling me the truth or they won't fit into our organizational culture. It is hard to see these individuals sitting in front of me knowing they need a job to support their families. It tugs on my emotions but knowing I had the opportunity to let them know not to give up and share the same experiences I had when I was out of work helps them to continue their pursuit to work.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our personal, organizational and cultural values play a big part in our everyday lives. By trying to align your personal values with your organization values and not so much the cultural values, it provides a road map to help guide you with ethical decisions. Until someone writes a book that is 100% accurate on hiring the right person for the job, we will have to depend on our values.

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Business Ethics Training - Why Important?

Many people wonder if business ethics is just a buzzword that has been tossed around lately, due to some of the aggressive tactics we have seen them as we enter the 21st century. I assure you, it is here to stay. What needs to be done is for more people to brush up on their ethics, as they relate to business, to make sure they always operate with a high standard of moral conduct. In this article, I will discuss with you why this is important to help you with your business.

Business ethics training comes in two forms -- one for the employer and one for the employee. For the employer, a good sense of what type of ethics are required as a business owner is needed, because the owner is the one who makes all the final decisions. They need to be a good leader and a representative of somebody who has strong moral and ethical ideology, if they are going to expect the same from their employees.

For the employee, business ethics training is even more important. Especially for somebody who is new on the job. If you start early, and instill a good sense of ethical conduct within your employees, or as an employee cultivate these ethics within yourself, then you can be assured of working in a company that will not fall prey to deceptive practices and fraudulent processes.

It is important that you take the time to develop your own sound business ideology, as it relates to ethics. You must consider what is acceptable, and what is not, as far as practices are concerned. On your own, you can only do so much. But, if you consult with professionals to help you design your own code of ethics, you will be that much better off.

Consider the facts -- every day there are certain ethical codes in business that are being violated, even by people who otherwise have been upright and outstanding citizens. How does this happen? How can a three to seemingly honest person one day do something stupid, and jeopardize the company, or even worse -- get thrown in jail?

It was because they did not have a well developed ethical business code, which you can receive with the proper training. So consider this type of training a valuable resource, if you want to build a strong solid foundation and business environment.

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Code of Conduct - Ethics Crisis in Business is on the Rise

Business Ethics - blah, blah, blah. There's no such thing. There are only ethics. They stem from your values, attitudes and beliefs. Since people make up corporations and organizations, it's their values, attitudes and beliefs that get brought into these environments. How they match up is a measure of performance.

The 2007 National Business Ethics Survey was released last month and guess what? They're Baaaaaack! Problems are back and at pre-Enron levels. The study reports that only 9% of companies in the U.S. have strong ethical cultures. Is yours one of them? Over 50% of employees surveyed said they saw ethical misconduct of some type and were afraid to report it for fear of retaliation or that reporting would not result in any organizational changes.

What has failed in the past?

Hotlines - they don't work. If employees want to report violations, they prefer to do it to someone they know and feel comfortable around. The challenge? What if the person they are comfortable with is involved in the infraction?

Having or conducting business practices that are not congruent with your organization's values creates conflicts and involves ethical decision making on the part of employees. Do what's right or do what will generate revenue and profits?

Heavy handed ethics penalties. The "off with your head" mentality doesn't foster individuals wanting to do the right thing. It fosters fear.

Creating values, posting them in the break room or on your web site and calling your organization an ethical or values-based business.

Creating a culture that is ethical or Values based should not be treated as a single event. This will involve engaging a consultant to come in and conduct an initial assessment to determine the culture climate. This will also involve a series of training conducted as workshops, seminars, teleconferences and other means for leadership, staff and employees. Clearly established objectives, measures and values will be set forth with responsibilities for both the consultant and the company in order to achieve the desired outcome.

What will work?

Establish clear values and your organizational code of conduct.

Interpret those values for your employees.

The Values you reward are the behaviors you can expect.

Hire, promote and develop a succession plan that is congruent with your organization's values.

Show employees that reporting makes a difference and provide multiple safe havens for reporting.

Now is the time to begin establishing your organization's true competitive advantage in the marketplace. How much is this costing your business in terms of lost employees, lost sales, slowed production, employee conflicts, reduced communication and a myriad of other areas with financial implications?

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