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What's Black and White and Gray All Over?
Several weeks ago I wrote about
the challenges of acting with integrity. Not that acting with integrity should ever be an option but
integrity is not always black and white – or is it?
Most people would agree these
days that bending the truth to hit your numbers is wrong.
But did you ever down sell your competition in order to win a
contract? Is that playing
fair? If not, did you lose
your integrity? Just
because everyone does it, doesn’t make it okay.
What about these situations? What would you do?
Your best friend is starting a
business. Many of your company’s clients need his services. (The
services that your friend provides don’t compete.) You give him a copy
of your company directory.
A prospect can’t afford your
company’s services. They
trust you and ask if you would be willing to do the work on the weekend
or at night. You do the work on your own time.
You are interviewing for a sales
position. By far the most
qualified candidate is a female African-American. Your best customer, however, has told you absolutely that if you
ever hired one of those &*#%, he would transfer 100 percent of his
business to your competitor.
You just left a confidential
high level meeting. You are
told that 50 employees will be laid off by Friday. As you leave the room, one of your best employees asks you if you
heard anything about any layoffs because that afternoon he and his wife
are signing the papers for a new house.
Well – what would you do? How
would you manage an employee who helped out your customer on the side or
shared your company directory? Would you tell your best customer to go
to your competitor if they mistreated an employee?
Have you been faced with other
situations that questioned your sense of integrity? Have you witnessed other breaches of integrity in the workplace
and how has it been handled?
I’d like to hear from you. Please
email me your stories and be assured that your responses
will be kept completely anonymous.
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