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Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith Become an Author

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In business there continues to be much discussion about ethics and values. With the recent behavior of individuals such as Mr. Madoff, the Enron executives to local business and community leaders who are facing felony indictments, being ethical appears for many to be a here one day and gone the next.

What is also so strange is for some who profess to have strong positive core values, they are willing to abandon and sacrifice these supposedly non-negotiable behaviors just to demonstrate that they have them. What is wrong with this picture?

Where did these here one day and gone the next behaviors come from? For many, the answer is society and specifically public schools. When schools removed key foundational beliefs to keep everyone happy, they made only a few happy – those without positive core values.

We can see the results of this hear today and gone tomorrow through research. Recent surveys indicate young people believe cheating is OK and then considered themselves to be highly ethical.

Another survey of graduate students suggested that the most unethical were lawyers followed closely by teachers. What does this say about those constructing the laws and those educating others about the laws and society? And isn’t it ironic how many times lawyers many who are politicians are the ones challenging the ethics of the business world?

How many times do sales professionals to corporate executives engage in what they know to be questionable behavior just to secure the order, to have some policy or expense account approved? Yet, these same individuals want everyone else to behave above board as the expression goes.

Having a written and well communicated values statement along with the policies for ensuring that behaviors are in alignment with the written guidelines is the first step to avoid the here one day gone the next. Consistent enforcement is the next step. For the most part people do know what is right and wrong. However, people will stretch the rules and use the behaviors of others as their justification for breaking the rules.

For me as a business professional, values are not here one day and gone the next. Ethical behaviors are part of my daily actions. They have helped me stand out as the Red Jacket in the crowd of gray behaviors.

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