Taken from an article published in LinkedIn by David Geh (Aug 27, 2014) - https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140827105035-152710888-the-importance-of-honesty-and-integrity-in-business?trk=mp-reader-card
Many underestimate the value of honesty and integrity in running their business operations. Even if you are an honest businessperson with impeccable integrity, as you grow in your business you need to constantly remind your people about how much importance you place on such values. It is no point having sophisticated and fancy mission statements and a bold vision when you say one thing and your employees do another. Don’t expect all your salaried employees to share your bold vision and your mission to change the world with what you do because at the end of the day, they are what they are, salaries employees putting in the hours to carve out a living month after month.
In a robust economy, there are ample employment opportunities for the salaried employee to choose from and what push comes to shove, they pack their bags and go on their next adventure in their quest for that new job opportunity leaving you high and dry in search for another willing candidate with an impressive resume to convince you with his or her skills and experience.
So the question here is what happens when you as the entrepreneur say one thing but your employees do the opposite? In a work environment where employees go unsupervised with the notion of giving employees freedom to make business decisions that would benefit the company, you may end up (sometimes later than sooner)discovering that, some of these decisions made may not be of the best interest of your company. No doubt they are in the ‘best interest’ but if you’re the type of boss that are seldom around to supervise your employees, you may find out that some of these decisions are in their own best interest.
Back to the topic of honesty and integrity. I believe that there is no use to invest millions of dollars in advertising, branding, promotions, public relations etc when at the core of it all, your people at the front line are ruining your business for you. For example, recently I was having lunch at a popular fast food chain outlet which main specialty is fried chicken. The meal was $12.65. I paid with a 20 and only got back $7.30 in return. It is not that I would die of hunger without the 5 cents she cashier didn’t return me but as a matter of principle, the fast food chain had cheated me. That 5 cents had in a way affected the way I view this fast food chain.
When I was a marketing lecturer teaching about customer service, I had always reminded my students that, to a customer, a business is worth the amount of money it cheats its customers of. No matter how many millions of dollars the company invested to position its brand in the market or how much money they spend on promotions it will be of no value to the cheated customer. Once the intention of the employee is there to make a fast buck out of unsuspecting customers, it could be 5 cents or 10 dollars or 10,000 dollars it amounts to the same thing. The customer’s trust has been tested and lost in the process of the employee trying to profit at the company’s expense.
After all, what do they care? At the beginning of this article I mentioned that at the end of the day, they are only salaried employees, no matter how big or small your organization is, or how much paid up capital your company has, or how much net profit you made in the last financial year.
So, what can you do to lessen the chance of this scenario happening to your company? For starters you can help build and nurture a strong culture of honesty and integrity in your company and get your people to buy in to it naturally. Nothing happens by coercion, everyone knows that. Awards and recognition of exemplary work done in certain key areas could be one of the ways. Employees are rewarded for helping return a customer’s iPad left at your restaurant for example. Besides rewarding employees who have demonstrated honesty and integrity in their everyday work, it would also be nice to give them recognition and appreciation openly so that others will be inspired to follow in their positive example.
Team based projects are also a good way to encourage and nurture this culture of honesty and integrity. Employees of different departments are grouped together in teams and given a task to identify a way to improve the customer’s buying experience at your company for example. You will be surprised at how much ideas can flow out of these brainstorming sessions where individuals of different backgrounds, experience and culture come together and are given a ‘responsibility’ which could potentially change the way their company operates or possibly the profit the company would make. 9 to 5 is such a drag and from time to time, your employees may want to flex their creative muscle or let their creative juices flow and how better could you let them do that than to give them special assignments from time to time.
Finally, it is not enough just to talk. Good leaders walk the talk. When it comes to honesty and integrity, it is much better to lead by example than to preach it. There is an old Chinese proverb that goes:
“Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand.
Step back and I will act.”
People remember what they are shown and seldom what they are told. Action speaks louder than words. I believe that, the more you show as a leader, the more your people will try to emulate. No doubt this is a double edged sword where if you show nonsense or negativity, you can be sure that your customers will complain that your employees are pure nonsense and negative. You won’t want a case of monkey see monkey do, do you? However if you show honesty and integrity in your dealings with your stakeholders, your employees, your customers, your vendors and your shareholders or partners, pretty soon your employees will take notice and it won’t be long before they may want to follow in your footsteps. - David Geh
