Technalink has contributed to the welfare of its employees and the industry itself for years, and one of the reasons for this longevity is its commitment to ethical leadership and its implementation. Of course, daily on the news and industry grapevine, there will always be stories about profit or advancement achieved through immoral or unethical means, but all of these have one thing in common: they sacrifice long-term success for short-term gains. Here are some of the benefits that come from adhering to an ethical management practice.
Reputational Advantage
From a completely superficial and perceptual standpoint, being publicly regarded as ethical is a positive for a business’s reputation and that of its management. Even people who don’t believe in taking ethical actions see the intrinsic advantage of being perceived as ethical.
Having a reputation for ethical leadership automatically attracts both new clients and customers, as well as more high-level prospective hires. People are attracted to ethics because they believe that in an ethical business, fair treatment for effort will be recognized and rewarded.
More Trust
One of the clearest advantages of maintaining ethical leadership in management is that it cultivates an environment of trust. When clients or customers trust a business, there tends to be both repeat business and less interference and direct supervision. In the same way, an ethical company that earns the trust of employees tends to experience better performance, fewer lapses into deliberately bad practices, and less requirement to oversee or micromanage employees, because the trust process works both ways.
Trust, or reliability, means stability and an expectation that promises made will be kept. All of this contributes to the previous reputational advantage, giving a business a competitive edge when it comes to being regarded as a reliable provider of results. In short, if a company claims it can do something and then delivers on its promise, this lays the groundwork for creating stronger, repeatable business relationships.
Simpler Performance
When you do what you promise and you say what you mean, this automatically simplifies many aspects of business and often eliminates complications before they can even take root. For example, if you value quality over profitability and work with the belief that quality leads to long-term profitability, this means you don’t have to instruct your employees to say one thing but do another. Typically, businesses that value profitability over quality place their employees in the dilemma of having to make false promises to the public, or to clients or customers, who will believe they are getting quality results, while sacrificing quality for short-term profit gain.
By adhering to ethical leadership and being honest about focusing on quality, not only do your employees face no moral dilemmas, but they can work toward a result that you, the business, and your clients and customers expect. This also means that clients or customers get exactly what was promised. There is no additional effort required here to figure out how to promise one thing, but deliver another, while still maintaining that prized reputation, despite not actually earning it.
Fewer Unethical Actions
It seems like it should go without saying, but the truth is, ethical leadership creates an ethical environment. If employees witness management taking unethical actions, it will be extremely difficult to discourage them from imitating. Actions speak louder than words, and while there may be some immediate benefits to a leader who acts in unethical ways, employees following suit, especially when it comes to their own work, or servicing clients or customers, will quickly erode results, reliability, trust, and ultimately, reputation.
Ethical leadership is only “harder” in the sense that it requires management to resist temptations. However, in the long run, it is “easier” in that creating an ethical environment benefits everyone.
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