Ethics Matter! - Summer 2014 NCLGBA Conference Presentation

1. Ethics Matter!
NCLGBA Summer Conference
July 2014

2. Key to ethics

3. Why Ethics Matters

4. What Is Ethics?
 The standard of conduct expected at work ...not
The law
My personal beliefs
Just what the community expects
 Choices and use of discretion matter
 Right values , right way, right outcome

5. Core Public Service Values
■ Equity
■ Transparency and trust
■ Honor
■ Integrity
■ Commitment
■ Stewardship

6. Values in action
• Be fair and impartial in decisions
• Respect and protect public assets
• Communicate clearly and truthfully
• Personal and professional conduct merits trust
• Avoid conflicts of interest

7. Common Conflicts of Interest
• Buying city or county property
• Personal work with vendors or individuals who do work
for the city/county
• Your adult child is applying for a position with the
county
• You are seeking employment with a firm that may bid
on a county project
• You are having conversations about future employment
with a developer whose project is in the approval
pipeline
• You recommend a personal friend for a consulting
project

8. Values in action
• Don’t leverage your office for personal gain
• Gifts….

9. Gifts: Free Cheese in A Mousetrap

11. Former CEO of CalPERS pleads guilty
to fraud, corruption charge
“A former chief executive of the country's
biggest public pension fund admitted that he
took more than $250,000 in bribes and other
valuable gifts from a friend and co-defendant in
an influence-peddling scandal that rocked the
pension investment world five years ago.”

13. “Report Puts City Among Elite Group of Frauds”
“A culture of obfuscation and denial so corrupted San
Diego's financial management that its meltdown
reached the historic levels of such poster children
of governmental and corporate malfeasance as
Orange County, Enron and WorldCom, according to
a long-awaited report released Tuesday.”
August 2006

14. The leader’s responsibility
1. Your personal conduct
2. What others did that you knew about
3. What others did that you didn’t know about

15. Fundamentals of Leadership
• Adaptive Capacity
• Ability to engage others through shared
meaning
• A distinctive voice
• Unshakeable integrity
Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas
Leading for a Lifetime

16. The Integrity Tripod
Balancing of ambition,
competence, and moral
compass
Warren G. Bennis and
Robert J. Thomas,
Leading for a Lifetime

17. The Good Leader
“Being seen as someone who can be trusted,
who has high integrity, and who is honest
and truthful is essential.”
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
A Leader’s Legacy

18. How to measure your trustworthiness
• Is my behavior predictable or
erratic?
• Do I communicate clearly or
carelessly?
• Do I treat promises seriously or
lightly?
• Am I forthright or dishonest?
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z.
Posner
A Leader’s Legacy

19. Preserve the Intangible
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and
five minutes to ruin it. If you think about
that you’ll do things differently.”
Warren Buffett

20. Leadership Matters
Who inspires you? Who do you inspire?

21. The Ethical Challenge
• Lack of reflection results in failure to identify
an ethical challenge
• Don’t evaluate impact of alternatives
• You can easily “fool yourself” when facing an
ethical challenge
• Lack a leader who believes in ethical decision
making? The organization will not act ethically.

22. The Ethical Challenge
• Culture matters!
• What is and is not informally talked about is
important
• What conduct/behavior do we reward?
• I’m not the problem, you are!
• Decision makers commonly engage in unethical
behavior without realizing it.
The struggle between “want” and “should”

23. We all have blind spots
“When it comes time to make a decision, our
thoughts are dominated by thoughts of how
we want to behave; thoughts of how we
should behave disappear.”
Max H. Bazerman & Ann E.
Tenbrunsel, “Blind Spots”

24. If the deal sounds too good to be
true….
County manager purchased 4 iPhones and 1 iPad for $900….
in cash paid to county IT director
• “Everyone knew about it”
• “Ok because all county employees could do this”
• “We’ve done it before”
• “I trusted her”
Equipment was charged to county ($2400) and the IT director
pocketed the cash!

25. No Filters

26. Common Mistakes
• Inappropriate travel expenses
• Unfiltered Facebook, twitter, email
• Failure to see/disclose conflicts of interest
• Gossiping about city or county matters
• Ignoring policy
• Misusing public resources
• Misusing private resources
• DUI… while texting
• Mixed messages

27. What message does this send?

28. Or this?

29. Six Steps to an Ethical Decision
The Law: Is it legal? Does it meet the spirit of the
law?
The Rules: Am I violating a policy/breaking a rule that
everyone else must follow?
Integrity: Am I breaking my word, a trust, a promise,
or a value?
Appearances: Do I have a conflict of interest in fact or
appearance? Am I the only or prime
beneficiary of an offer or service?
Clear Thinking: Is emotion or bias clouding my
judgment?
Perspective : Is this my finest hour or one I might
regret?

30. The Ethics Challenge

31. Make Your Organization a Shining
Example of Ethical Conduct!

32. Or not!

33. Leaders….
 Set the tone
Model the conduct you want to see in others
You are always on active duty
Don’t walk by something wrong
Don’t create ethical dilemmas for others
 Take action to champion ethical behavior
 Test how we are doing…relentless focus
 Moral Compass points North

34. Where is true north???

35. • What did you know?
• When did you know it?
• What did you do about
it?
When An Ethical Problem Comes to
Light, Be Ready to Answer……

36. Ask Yourself • Can you live with your
Google legacy when it hits
the media?
• Are you being candid or
just answering the
question asked?
• Will you think well of
yourself when you look
back on this decision in
ten years?
• Is it keeping you up at
night? If you have to think
twice about it, don’t do
it?

37. The Last Word
There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial
ball,
And that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.
Ogden Nash