What is your moral compass for navigating corporate life?

Here’s a scenario:  your company is counting on you to profitably deliver an outcome for which your client has agreed to pay a great deal, and upon which your client’s business performance is heavily dependent.  If you perform well, you will be rewarded with a significant promotion.  Your team, and especially the key players who have been working overtime for the last 6 months, have advised that a 2-month delay in the schedule will be necessary.  This will delay the client’s business benefit and will negatively affect the profitability of the contract.

Whose interests are paramount?   To whom do you owe the greatest loyalty:  your client, your company, your people, or yourself?  How do you make that decision?

At any level of management, including the executive levels, and in almost any kind of business, we are tasked to do four things:

• Bring value to our clients or customers
• Bring value to our company
• Bring value to the people we lead and influence
• Bring value to ourselves and our career.

Indeed, what differentiates the role of a manager versus a director versus an entry-level executive versus a senior executive is defined by the scope of responsibilities in each of those four areas. 

And moral dilemmas are defined and created by the potential conflict between two or more of those areas.  In fact, the scenario described above has all four in play.  So what would you do?  More interestingly, how would you decide?

I don’t claim to have all the answers, or even to have always behaved over the course of my career to the highest moral standards.  Here is what I do believe. 

First, you must do your best to decide what is “truth” in any given circumstance.  In the above example, you would need to realistically assess the feasibility of adhering to the original schedule.  Can it be done at all by anyone?  Can it be done by this team?  What will be the human cost, if it is in fact feasible?  What will the business cost be to the client if there is a planned 2-month delay?  What will the business cost be to the client, the company, and the people if there is an unplanned 2-month delay?  I am reminded of a line from the recent movie, “Margin Call” when, as the investment company’s world begins to crumble, and the executive in charge of risk management is recalling a key decision of the previous year, she reflects, “It seemed like the only choice at the time.”  The truth, if it were to be analyzed dispassionately, invariably suggests multiple choices.  

Next, I believe our professional obligations generally should be prioritized in the order of client over company over people over oneself.  Why?  Clients come first because we, as individuals and as enterprises, cannot endure if we do otherwise.  The company comes second, because we have an employment contract to honor, based upon which we are being paid to help the company achieve its goals.  And our people come before us, because we cannot sustain a leadership role if people believe we will put our self interests before theirs.

And finally, no matter which area is given preference in any specific circumstance, it should never be at the total expense of any one of the parties.  Any such decision tends to suggest coercion or bullying, in my experience.  While a “win-win” solution may not be possible in every case, there is almost always a way forward that does not involve totally “throwing under the bus” any one area of interest.

One final point:  I do believe that client interests come first, but if one is confident they will be reasonably addressed, then one can go to the next perspective down the chain, and so forth.  Of course, thinking typically is not as sequential as that – it often is quite iterative.  But the notion of the hierarchy still seems to me like a good approach to navigating the waters. 

So the next time you feel at risk of getting lost in the murky morality of corporate life, I suggest you start with the truth, and then decide whose interests should come in what order, while finding some way to acknowledge all the perspectives.

It won’t make your days simpler, but it might make your nights a lot more restful.

Comments

[Becky]

Being a manger really is a big responsibility, and whilst managers should not be putting themselves first, one should never compromise their own integrity and values in order to please a boss or client. Saying that, a manger should try and put the needs of a client first when planning a project. A good wa to do that is with Online project management software which can be a great tool for organising projects of any size. It allows you to keep all your data in one place that you (and your team) can access from any computer. An online project management program will also help you to track your budget, resources and time, thus not forgetting the needs of your comopany and co-workers.