Page 104 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Can Be Trusted • 85

You’ll find it surprising what people think is unethical. If you’re sick,
you don’t work, but you still get paid. A worker supposedly was vom-
iting from food poisoning, so he stayed home and took advantage of
the policy. Turns out it wasn’t food poisoning but alcohol poisoning.
I wasn’t going to pay him for an illness he brought on himself, caus-
ing others to make up for his absence.

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I choose to be fair in my dealing. I realize what is fair in my thinking
may not be fair in yours. You are obligated to bring it to my attention,
and we’ll talk about it.

Keeping commitments doesn’t prohibit you from changing your mind
and taking a different position if you learn additional information. You may
revoke, but you don’t renege. You don’t flipflop because you’re pressured,
quarreling, under distress, or in an emergency or some other crisis.
Hold onto your pledge when you’re having good fortune too—that’s
as much a test of character as when you’re experiencing bad times.
Periodically, check yourself. When on the fence, ask yourself,
“Would I be happy if what I’m doing was on the front page of the news-
paper in the town where I grew up, where my high school flame, friends,
and my mom and dad still live?” Or, as one CEO told me, he tries to
make decisions and act “like my little brother is watching.”

Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People

If people you’re around get to the agreed-on end result but without
integrity, the end result will lack integrity and so will you by association.

Put real energy into being in collaboration with individuals with
integrity and high ethics. Surround yourself with people who have a
sense of humor, who don’t take themselves too seriously but do only
take their work seriously. Be careful. When you’re young, you can
believe the banter of a person with bad interests that you can’t find
out about until later.