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- This is a book about honorable behavior at work. At the heart of honorable behavior is a simple concept: character. It turns out that character and performance are strongly intertwined. "People who have, for lack of a better term, 'ethical lapses,' are never your high-performing employees..." (5)
- Time, practice, and commitment: Character is developed over time, with consistent effort. Character development is similar to weight training. (...) It takes constant effort to develop and sustain the traits associated with high character. (8)
- ...The ABC News journalist Dan Harris talks about how hard he has had to work to develop patience and presence. An on-air meltdown prompted him to reevaluate the way he was living, and he discovered that developing a mindfulness meditation practice helped him to 'neutralize the voice in his head,' as he puts it, and live more fully in the moment. Being present and resisting the urge to dwell on the past or future is something he works at -- hard -- every day. Some days go better than others, but overall, he notes, he is much nicer to be around and much less prone to lose his temper. (8-9)
- The 10 qualities associated with high-character employees: honesty, accountability, care, courage, fairness, gratitude, humility, loyalty, patience, presence. (...) These qualities are sometimes referred to as virtues. (15)
- There are essentially two approaches to thinking about ethics. This first looks at conduct and is primarily concerned with the question, "What should I do?" The second, which originates with Aristotle, asks not, "What should I do?" but rather, "Who should I be?" (16)
- Ethical principles provide a framework, not a formula, for making the right decisions at work and in one's personal life. They're useful for solving conundrums like the ones above. But the character-based approach to ethics is not simply about solving puzzles here and now: it aims to develop traits that prompt us to live our whole lives honorably. (17)
- But trustworthiness isn't a single quality. Rather, it comes from a combination of several qualities, particularly honesty, accountability, fairness, and loyalty. (19)
- Integrity is not a single trait but rather the expression of many traits. Can an employee be considered to have integrity if he or she is as honest as the day is long but is also a selfish, disloyal, and persistently angry person? No. Employees with integrity aren't merely honest: they're also accountable, fair, and patient. (19)
- "So shines a good deed in a weary world." - Willy Wonka to Charlie, after the boy makes a difficult but honest choice, in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (originally from Shakespeare's _Merchant of Venice_) (27)
- "I was raised to be honest," she told me. It was that simple. "It doesn't matter if you need the money. It's not yours. So you turn it in. My parents told me that if you're honest, you will get your reward at the end of time. If you're not honest, you will pay for it on Judgment Day." (28)
- All of the ten qualities we'll examine in this book are hallmarks of high-character employees, but honesty is the most important one. No matter how knowledgeable or skilled a person may be, if he or she is fundamentally dishonest or doesn't value honesty, that person is detrimental and possibly even dangerous. (28)
- Honesty is above all a feeling, a disposition, an orientation toward the truth. Honest employees cannot tolerate lying, fudging data, misrepresenting themselves or their companies, or other conduct that displays contempt for the truth. Falsehood in all its forms is a poison to an honest person. (28)
- "But I asked myself," 'What if my son were in the navy during a war, and he was relying on my software program for knowing whether a message he sent got through or not?" With lives on the line, Cari was willing to risk her job for the sake of doing honest research. Her passion for telling the truth and her courage to be true to herself makes her one of the Good Ones. (29)
- "Ken, you want to live your life never having to worry about the knock on the door. As in the knock from someone about to say, 'Something came to my attention that I need to discuss with you. Can you please step into my office and explain something to me?' For what would be a relatively small amount of money, you find yourself fired, not collecting unemployment because it's misconduct, and trying to find a job after something like that." (31)
- "Conducting yourself ethically frees up your mind. Not having to worry about the knock on the door gives you peace of mind while you're at work." (31)
- One of the critical components of character for Aristotle is phronesis, a Greek word that is usually translated as "practical wisdom" or "prudence." (32)
- Most of the time, honesty is a sign of high character. But, as we'll see throughout this book, high-character employees know when to exhibit a particular quality and when to keep it to themselves. (33)
- He created the Choices Foundation, which supports the ethics education for young people and awards scholarships to children whose parents are incarcerated. He is now the chief operating officer of a national company based in South Carolina and has a busy schedule as an ethics speaker. (35)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that "there are no second acts in American lives," but Chuck Gallagher transformed the poor choices he made in the first act of his life into an opportunity to prevent others from doing the same. Incidents like the one Chuck experienced at the firing range drive home how devastating the consequences of dishonesty can be. (35)
- A company's power, influence, and integrity are a direct function of the honesty of its employees. (36)
- ..."How you do anything is how you do everything..." (39)
- I'll never forget what Eric's own attorney said to the jury: "No one will ever trust Eric again." When your own attorney publicly declares you to be untrustworthy, you've got some real integrity problems. (40)
- Too often, we think of ethics in terms of what people shouldn't be doing and how unethical behavior hurts organizations. That's part of the story but not all of it. Companies already prohibit employees from acting dishonestly, but they need to go further and actively promote honesty as a core value. (44)
- Of the ten crucial qualities of high-character employees, honesty is the most important. It doesn't matter how knowledgeable or skilled an employee may be if he or she is dishonest. Honest employees are deeply passionate about the truth and have the courage to act on their convictions. (44)
- Accountability: "The price of greatness is responsibility." - Winston Churchill (45)
- What is accountability? Accountable employees do four things consistently: 1) They keep their promises. 2) They consider the consequences of their actions. 3) They take responsibility for their mistakes. 4) They make amends for those mistakes. (46-47)
- "This serves as another reminder that we are held accountable for our actions, even more so in our online-driven world. If we're inconsistent in our interactions with our audiences online and offline, we'll be called out. It can take years to build your online reputation and only one slip-up on social media to destroy it. Another lesson: Think before hitting 'send.'" (...) In a world where work is increasingly conducted online, high-character employees consider the consequences of every text, email, tweet, and online forum post they make at work. Some go further and apply that standard to their online activity outside work. (51)
- ...for helping him become a better employee -- and a better person. Recently, Brad was voted Employee of the Month, and he views the incident that set all of this in motion as a turning point in his professional and personal development. (53)
- The top item in Kevin Daum's article for Inc. online, "5 Desirable Traits of Great Employees," is "accountability." "Employees can be smart, likable, and talented," Daum writes, "but, if you can't trust them to do what they say they'll do, you and everyone else will constantly waste time and energy checking up on their work." (54)
- Having a strong work ethic fundamentally means keeping promises to one's employer. That's why it's an issue of character. (54)
- Hubert is defined by his work. His constant preoccupation with his job isn't a sign of a strong work ethic: it's more akin to an obsessive-compulsive disorder. (55)
- "Hype artists -- people who promise a lot but don't deliver -- usually get found out pretty quickly and don't last long." (57)
- The urge to overpromise: When I fail to keep a promise I make, it's not because I don't intend to keep the promise when I make it. That's what Jean-Paul Sartre calls "bad faith." Rather, it's because I want to please the person who is making the request and don't think about how much effort it will entail. (60)
- Hubert works constantly, which compromises his personal relationships and health. Marie works hard when she's at the office and occasionally checks her smartphone when she's home, but she does her best to separate the professional and personal dimensions of her life (no easy feat given our ready access to work and our employers' ready access to us). Hubert is a workaholic. Marie has a strong work ethic yet still has room for valued relationships beyond work. (63)
- Accountable employees are high-character people because they keep promises, consider consequences, take responsibility seriously, and make amends for their mistakes. A strong work ethic is a form of accountability, because it involves keeping a promise to one's employer. It is not the same as workaholism. Obstacles to accountability include a culture that doesn't value this quality; overpromising; and the time, money, and energy it can cost to hold people accountable. (65)
- But high-character employees care about not only their clients but also every relationship they have in and beyond the workplace. Their secret weapon is that they also care about, and for, themselves. (68)
- "A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the 'top of the pyramid,' servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible." (69)
- Caring employees serve their organizations, their clients, and their team members while taking care of themselves, too. The Good Ones see both of these goals as essential to their work. (69)
- It makes no sense to have a speaking engagement and not be completely engaged in delivering it. (70)
- ...engaged employees are those who have an emotional connection to their work and an ethical commitment to taking it seriously. (70)
- Steve is one of the Good Ones because he refuses to bad-mouth people. Instead, he good-mouths them. Good-mouthing is the practice of saying nice things about people behind their backs. (73)
- Caring employees make it a habit of telling others the good things that the boss, coworkers, direct reports, and clients are doing. It's a good thing to do for its own sake, and it makes the good-mouther feel good, too. It's also something we can learn or choose to do. (74)
- "She had the least glamorous job in the place, but whatever the task at hand was, she did it with a smile on her face. She would sell it, like it was the best, most fun thing she could be doing." (75)
- "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." (84)
jul 11 2020 ∞
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