-Project Manager at a Regional Engineering Firm
It had been almost five years since I had seen my West Point classmate. I always enjoyed seeing him. We have a common bond all academy graduates have. But, after our first hour together, he said something that rocked my world.
I smiled and secretly hoped he was talking about my pant size.
Email is a terrible way to communicate. There are multiple studies showing about 50% of all emails are misinterpreted. My experience and your experience probably support that fact.
I have received angry emails from my customers, my peers and my leaders through the years. They can make me both angry and frustrated. Unfortunately, the way I choose to respond to those emails usually escalates the emotions involved.
We all have a choice in how we respond to these messages.
If I challenge my boss, she will thank me. If I speak up for what is right, my boss will not persecute me. If I fight for my integrity despite pressure from above, I will always keep my job.
None of these results are guaranteed if I do the right thing. The only time I have a guarantee is if I stay silent. My silence guarantees things will stay the way they are. Speaking up is the only way change may happen.
Based on comments I received on my last blog post, I am reposting this blog from November 2012 to encourage people to SPEAK UP if in matters of integrity.
I had a dream that I worked for a company that got rid of it’s Human Resources Department. There were no more HR manuals or HR classes.
This was not a result of ineffective HR professionals. They just weren’t needed in that company. Was this heaven?
No. It was a dream. But, after rereading John Maxwell’s book, There Is No Such Thing As “Business” Ethics, I believe there is one Standard Operating Procedure that could make the dream a reality. The Golden Rule. Continue Reading…
In a nutshell: Inflicting pain on myself or someone else is a test of character and courage.
There are some decisions I make in leadership, I know are going to hurt. They may hurt me, or they may hurt others. In these situations, it may not be my integrity being tested. It is most likely my courage.
As a leader, one of my biggest mistakes was believing I should treat everyone equally. This is a societal fallacy that has moved into HR driven management training. In fact, treating people equally is management not leadership.
Treating all people equally is a management strategy that is meant to prevent litigation. It is a strategy that has little to do with driving productivity, developing leaders, or motivating employees.
As I strived to build Low Maintenance Teams in a bureaucratic organization characterized by equal treatment for all, I would often tell my people, “I will treat you all fairly, but I will not treat you equally.”
All real growth comes from mistakes. My son did not go from crawling to running a few months later without falling down. When he learned to walk, he fell after one step and got back up. He fell after 2 steps and got back up again. This pattern continued until he was running full speed through hallways of our home.
Every kid learns to walk in close to the same way. They fail, fail, and fail again until success finally comes. They are not afraid of mistakes. But something changes in us as we age. Our willingness to fail in order to get what we desire wanes. Fear of making a mistake takes over and we stop growing.
I often say that a tree that stops growing, starts dying. It is the same with an individual or an organization. Yet I see people trying to mistake proof their lives or their companies and they wonder why they feel like stuck where they are.
As a parent, I always want to clean and bandage a cut on my children to avoid infection and promote quick healing. I know wounds left to themselves can cause serious problems to the health of my children.
Issues at work, within a friendship or at home that are left alone can be dangerous as well. But if that is the case, why do I avoid attending to these wounds? It is because I do not see confrontation as part of healing. But, confrontation done well can heal wounds!
There is a lot of discussion of the word integrity in business books, in politics, in universities…in every walk of life. I read about it all the time. But, my father, General Jim Anderson, the former Master of the Sword at West Point, taught me more about integrity than any other source. He says:
INTEGRITY requires three steps:
I agreed to talk to the boss. Three of my peers approached me about a sales campaign that they thought missed the mark. It was our boss’s idea, but it wasn’t a good one.
Over time, I became the person my peers came to when someone needed to confront our boss. I accepted that role and felt comfortable doing it. I just wish my peers would have spoken directly to our boss themselves instead of going through me. Continue Reading…
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