I
work for the Department of Defense (DoD) as a civilian safety officer working installation
level radiation and explosive safety for Fort Rucker, Alabama. My work experience for the past 28 years were
with the Army and with the U.S. Customs Service (prior to merging with Homeland
Security). As a young man, I also spent
11 years working in a unionized grocery store chain based in Flint, Michigan.
My
thoughts for this writing are to show how my organization portrays its
values. I will attempt to show both good
and bad examples from my past work history.
The two links listed below are two short videos on organizational
ethics. I thought that both videos had a
powerful message to share about ethical behavior within organizations.
The first
video talked about ethical intelligence and the framework necessary for that to
be built in an organization. The top
three points the speaker made when comparing a slippage of ethical values down
a slippery slope of small
sins/transgressions that ultimately led to felonies. Criticism is about
bringing out the best in other people.
Too often in our society we think of criticism as a negative and are
unable to accept it in order to improve.
Every man is right in his own eyes. The speaker urges those in leadership
positions to harness their anger and direct it towards positive
improvement. Conversely, only a secure
leader is able to apologize sincerely for making a mistake and taking action so
that it never happens again. A good
leader also is able to show appreciation to those who are in need of it. These three traits exhibit more than just
strictly ethical intelligence. I believe
it also is part of emotional intelligence (EI).
It appears that it is necessary to have both of these characteristics in
order to be an effective leader.
One example
I can give you of a secure leader was when I worked for U.S. Customs. A new set of agency regulations were
published on how to handle seized
property. Seized property for U.S.
Customs could be drugs, cash, weapons, vehicles, or real estate. As my supervisor conducted a meeting, fine
tuning the procedures, I spoke up and suggested a course of action that would
eliminate duplication of work, greater efficiency in storing seized property,
and greater accountability for sensitive items.
He paused and then looked directly at me and said, “That’s a good idea
and that is what we are going to do”. A
less secure leader would have discounted the idea because it was not his. I found that to be an example of good
leadership and ethical behavior.
In
the second video, the speaker made the statement that had been spoken to him a
long time ago: “You have made a terrible mistake, but you are not a mistake”. Wow.
How many leaders can harness their anger at a mistake and still support
his subordinate? I have a less pleasant example
to share when I was a young cashier at a unionized grocery store chain. The cashiers on our shifts would typically
take in $5,000.00 of cash, checks, food stamps, and food vouchers. The supervisor I worked for was widely known
to be hard-nosed to the point of being feared almost universally by his
employees. He was tall, with dark hair,
penetrating dark eyes, and an intimidating beard. His very appearance was ominous. Our cashier tills were required to be within
a dollar of balance when closed out. It
was an extremely difficult standard due to a number of circumstances. Food stamps stuck together. People would buy small items and give large
bills to cash. Payroll checks were
accepted. In other words, it was
tough. After three times of being off
more than a dollar (but never more than two dollars), I was fired. The supervisor berated me and told me that I
was worthless, I never should have been hired, and that he was glad to get rid
of me. Okay. Was I lazy?
No. Was I a top performer? Maybe.
I was always near or at the top of monetary intake for the cashier
tills. Was I intimidated? Absolutely.
I was terrified of this man. I
couldn’t stand it when he would stare at me while I was working. He made me nervous. The man didn’t seem to have an iota of joy in
his life. He never smiled.
Bottom
line, he was NOT a good supervisor. He
had neither ethical intelligence nor emotional intelligence. He even lied to the company about the procedural
violations that I was being terminated for.
My mother was so upset that she attended a union meeting with me to help
me get my job back. I did. The union got the standard relaxed to three
dollars for cashier till closeouts. I
never had another problem with closeouts again.
As
an un-necessary post-script to this story, that supervisor committed suicide
about 4 years after I worked for him.
Wow. I was actually stunned when
I heard the news. I thought he would
have been happy. He drove a nice
Corvette and had a nice house. Material
things aren’t everything. Sometimes it
is the things we can’t see that are much more important.
Respectfully,
John Hescott
References:
Retrieved
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLxbHBpilJQ
Retrieved
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUJ00vNGCPE
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