SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 210,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Have you ever faced a major ethical dilemma at work?
- Yes, and I navigated it well: 70%
- Yes, and I navigated it poorly: 12%
- No, but I feel prepared to deal with one: 17%
- No, and I feel unprepared to handle it: 1%
Difficult Ethical Dilemmas. Many of you have faced these challenges and and handled them well. For those of you who didn’t or who don’t feel prepared, don’t be discouraged or intimidated. These situations can be overcome by executing a few key steps. Be right, seek counsel, document events, and keep good records. In doing those four things, you’ll have protected yourself in the process of making a difficult call. Failure to follow these steps likely results in an ugly situation.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, author of the upcoming book “The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved” and “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”