Are you a manager/supervisor, business executive, or organizational leader? You may even be a CEO, or a Unit Head overseeing the working of a medium or large business, social, or a ‘not-for-profit’ organization. Your role may be entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial.
Whatever the situation – you are concerned with effective and efficient utilization of various physical, financial, human, and informational resources at your disposal to accomplish organizational goals and objectives.
My sole purpose in writing this post is to impress upon you the need to restructure (and/or fine-tune) your leadership and management style so that you are more professional and ethical in your broader approach to people, their problems, and to their organizations. You will also do well to blend the right proportions of compassion and empathy while dealing with people.
Based on my over four decades of experience in dealing with people and organizations, I am giving below a few specific suggestions to restructure/fine-tune your leadership/management style:
The first and foremost aspect is to genuinely respond to the interests and expectations of all your stakeholders in the business – namely, your customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and other local bodies that impact your business, the government, and society. You must do the best possible to fulfil their expectations from your business.
You must always ensure that all your decisions and actions are based on structured information and data. Kindly avoid taking any decision or action based on your personal preferences, whims, or fancies because that would mean that you are deviating from the path of professionalism. You must strive to practice stark professionalism in almost all functional areas like production, marketing, sales, accounts and finance and HR.
You must also ensure that all your employees show up at work every day and on time, maintain good hygiene, dress appropriately, and follow the company rules. All your employees must understand that their employer expects a full day’s work for a full day’s pay.
All managers should also demonstrate integrity in their behaviour. In my opinion, managerial integrity is an essential ingredient for effective and ethical leadership. In addition to their job competencies, functional expertise and credentials, successful managers have personal characteristics that underlie their leadership skills. Integrity is one such characteristic that is noticeable in leaders who demonstrate a firm commitment to business principles.
Illustrations of managerial integrity can be found during interactions with peers, colleagues, and subordinates as well as the public within and outside the workplace. Managers who lead with integrity do not sugar-coat employee evaluations for the sake of being popular or being liked. Socially irresponsible corporate behaviour is something that managers with integrity will not tolerate even if it means putting their job in jeopardy.
As the Head of your organization – you must also ensure that all your employees working in various departments follow and practice ethics in their functional areas like production, marketing, accounts and finance, and advertising.
You will also do well to sensitize your employees towards various other aspects like workplace discrimination, regulatory compliances, insider trading, and always adhering to moral and ethical practices.
As a great organization, you must also do your bit towards society by adhering to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) practices. As far as possible you should follow the concepts of Triple Bottom Line (TBL) and the 4 Ps of Ethical Business to make your CSR initiatives more effective and meaningful.
“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.
Vince Lombardi
Very well said sir.
We as students have plenty of things to learn from.