Why It's Important To Be Morally In Sync With Your Team
I take great pride in the teams I have built and led over the years. At the risk of sounding discriminatory, I have found that I have tried to hire morally good people. I often say in the workplace that, "I hire people who are good out there and in here, too." Since I have high integrity, I expect it from the people I lead. Ironically, I have been fired for refusing to lower my integrity quotient. I have quit for the same reason.
There are some things I am unwilling to do for money. I am a marketing and sales executive. There are ample situations where bending the truth or over stating something present themselves.
I resist every time.
It is likely that I have increased my moral standard as I have aged and gained more experience. That doesn't mean I ever had a low standard. I once quite a job while my wife was pregnant and we were broke. I refused to sell products to people who didn't need them. My manager said I had to and I replied, "Then I cannot work here anymore."
And out the door, I went.
It's a dicey subject - morality. I popped the word into Google to find a definition. “Concerned with the principals of right and wrong behavior and the goodness of badness of human character.” Ok, seems reasonable to me.
But where does moral behavior fit in the workplace?
If you are a senior leader, like I am, it is part of your job to ensure that you have high moral character. It is your duty to hire people who do too. It is tough to test for when assessing talent. Here is what I do.
I am very casual when I interview. I often do the first interview with the candidate in a suit. The second time I see them I ask them to come casual. Mostly, all I am looking for in these meetings is direct engagement. A firm handshake and direct eye contact make all the difference to me. If you can’t look me in the eye and tell me about the last marketing campaign you did and what the results were, I am not interested.
For sales executives, this is super important. If you can't be direct with me, you won't be direct with my prospects and customers. You won't be representing the brand the way I want or sending the kind of message I want to put out. If you can't look at me when you talk, I suspect you are hiding something. If you are hiding something, chances are you don't have high moral character. It's that simple.
Company culture is important. I have built and changed many over the years. I wear many scars on my back from this work. I view the next person I hire as the one who may ruin everything my team and I have built. A poor cultural fit is potential cancer to a high performing organization. It only takes one cell to set off a malignancy across the organization.
To offset this, I have many people interview my candidates. I always make myself available to see theirs as well. Senior executives are eager to spend time with new talent. I once brought in a talented sales executive who I asked the CEO to interview. He impressed the CEO and my boss asked me if I minded if he got together with the candidate over a drink. I supported it and they met one night after work. Unfortunately, the candidate thought he had a license to work with the CEO without me. He cut me out and went over my head arranging the next steps. I immediately stopped the recruiting process. The CEO confronted me on this. You can imagine my surprise that I had to remind the CEO how important culture is. I chalked this up to his being a first time chief. He came around, and we hired someone who did have high moral character.
Capability is king when recruiting. I try to hire the most qualified candidates. My style is to let them run free. My job is to provide them with tools, some guidance and to knock down a wall or two, so they can excel. It may sound simple, but it is quite difficult. An old boss of mine once said, "you give your people a long leash." I responded with, "they will either like that I am treating them like an adult, or hang themselves."
I trust the people I hire and expect them not to take advantage of me or the culture I am building and leading. In over 30 years and hundreds of hires, I have only had a couple of people end up on the noose. I have lead teams to record sales years at three companies and been part of a $300+ million exit. The morally good guys always win.
I am surprised how references have become a dying art in 2017. Companies are afraid of discrimination lawsuits. They have moved away from an essential part of the recruiting process. I have a big network on LinkedIn and Twitter. In the space where I work, I can usually find out about people through my connections. I always ask the candidate for them but do my check up to be sure. It is here where I can learn what I need to know before an offer goes out the door. A few years ago, I hired an executive who told me he was aware that I have a large network. He said he wanted to tell me something before I found it out on my own. He wanted to let me know that he had been let go from a job. We talked about it, and I immediately hired him on the spot. He has high moral character and is a top performer today.
Recruiting and building a team is hard. Working with people who are good in all aspects of their lives can help bring your team and company to the next level. Don't settle on talent that doesn't fit with how you do business.
Short cuts and fast talking staff will get you nowhere fast. But ethical staff with high moral standards will deliver results that will allow you to sleep at night.
My best, Chris
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