“Like a high-gloss diamond ring on the hand of a glamorous fashion model, the offices of a legitimate stock brokerage will sparkle. When you visit one you will not feel like you are going up against a card shark in a gambling casino. You will quickly conclude that these are not the premises of a scam artist’s carnival midway joy ride.

They will showcase a good balance of offerings. Many of these will be with Fortune 500 companies and a good cross-section of well-known, prestigious firms listed on the various stock exchanges. And no quick-buck con men to instantly push these either.

They are usually located at easy-to-find addresses on well-known streets, and are housed in well-lighted, nicely-appointed offices. Very subtly you will get the idea that, while money can’t buy happiness, it sure makes misery a lot easier to deal with.

Extensive biographies of their brokers and other operational and management personnel are most often readily available. Some you will meet, with no hint or talk of up the ante, beat the street, sweeten the pot, a sweetheart deal, or it’s a cash cow.

And, their list of references and testimonials from satisfied customers is usually extensive. No chest thumping, self-congratulatory back slapping of themselves as being the “”best in the financial guru business.”"

In checking out their research facilities you will also find an attempt at thoroughness, a striving to provide fact-digging excellence to support their stock and bond selection recommendations.

In sharp contrast. . .

Much like the face on the bar room floor, a boiler room–or bucket shop–will almost always be located on a back street, in a dingy office. It will have many small desks shoved together, or in tiny cubicles, featuring sales personnel–scam artists– working phone banks, reading from scripts in their conversations. They do not provide wide-spread offerings. And, no research facilities open to the public at this version of a Norman Bates motel either. No extensive bios and no variety of testimonials. Their surroundings are much like the settings in a legal thriller movie.

Do not expect to deal with someone inspired by Mother Teresa. Rather, the boiler room boys will glad-handingly pass themselves off to you as the most gifted authorities on the American free enterprise system since the Rockefeller clan’s bankers. Their specialty, along with their operational goals, is quite different from the legitimate stock brokerage. Learning these differences is essential to your financial well being. Failure to do so could be the equivalent of diving into a lake encased in a cement life jacket. The con men’s “”specialties”" includes:

> Classic Pump and Dump operations.
Just another well-known shell game.

> Reverse of the Pump and Dump, known as the Short and Distort. Here the scam artists spread rumors in order to drive the prices of thinly traded stocks down. rather than in the generally accepted direction, up. Then, they buy back the results of their “”short sales”" at a discount and profit. Most often considerably.

> The selling of fictitious foreign exchange investments. Yes, that’s right, stuff grabbed purely out of thin air. The scam artists know how intriguing it is to seduce with language like “”foreign exchange,”" and how many suckers exist out there who will “”sail”" for this exotic-sounding type investment.

> The selling of risky, small cap IPO’s (Initial Public Offerings). Now, not all IPOs are necessarily poor investments. Some–a very few–are actually millionaire makers. But, the odds against are enormous. The only good, proven millionaire-making potential here is for the scam artists who peddle them. The odds do truly smile on the con men in this investment category.

> The selling of “”house stocks,”" shares in shaky companies–usually tiny firms–that are of OTC Bulletin Board or Pink Sheets quality at best.. These are usually blocks of stock that the scam artists have purchased at a sharp discount. Exceptions? Yes, like IPOs. A select few will flower, flourish, and produce bountiful profits. But, the big majority will reward–only–the con man advocate.

> Maybe the worst of all the practices of these people is the holding back on execution of sell orders. And, sometimes outright failure to execute. (They will go to great lengths to avoid the creation of downward pressure on the prices of stocks they are trying to unload.)

Selection can be of equal challenge–in determining reality as opposed to the plot of a legal thriller book. Your failure at being able to distinguish between the two–differentiate between the legitimate and illegitimate operations–could be costly to you. If you were to, somehow, stumble into dealings with the boiler room boys by mistake, you would be like the lumberjack 100 feet up a tree suddenly coming upon a bee hive. Naturally, you can stomp, cajole, complain. You can threaten them with a law suit.. Of course, you can always try taking a bone away from a pit bull, too. You’d probably get equally as far.

The Con Man’s Blog, and first two chapters of Jack Payne’s legal thriller book, Six Hours Past Thursday, are now available online. Both readable for free. You are invited to visit this blog.

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Tags legal, ethics, professional, issues, modern

“Ethics is defined as being a set of principles of right conduct, and as a Rolfer the therapeutic relationship necessitates this structure as much as it is defined by it. Les Kertay, Advanced Rolfer, defines ethics as the principles of a therapeutic relationship. In this brief review I will discuss insight into how and why problems arise in the therapeutic relationship spoken to at the 2002 Rolf Institute Annual Meeting, and give general principles/guidelines into begging the question “”What is Rolfing?”"

The basic assumption with Rolfing is that complaints stem from a failure of the therapeutic relationship or ethics. “”What to do about what is”", is the Rolfers ontological resource that should be used when engaging a past, current, or future client. It appears to be as much a philosophy as it is a psychology, a complete lifestyle, which in and of itself begs the question “”What is Rolfing?”" All health care relations are therapeutic relations and the phenomena known, as Transference/Counter transference that exists between a Rolfer and his clients is palpable, in all meetings. The nature of the work will magnetize expectations of fix-it sessions and or desires to process emotions through the sessions, this is where it can start to get sticky. The Rolfer is always responsible for the framework of the relationship that always includes Transference/Counter transference so the boundaries and framework should begin with an Informed Consent form. This will always serve as a resource when dealing with unrecognized/unexpressed expectations of a client, a misunderstanding. NEVER HAVE SEX WITH A CLIENT. Do not make exceptions; if you do you have just changed the context of the relationship! Do not do anything with a client that you cannot discuss openly and comfortably. Remember that clients may be seeking boundaries by testing them.

Problem clients can include those involved with workman’s compensation or car accidents, which means an attorney is involved or soon will be so keep no secrets and give no guarantees. It is always best to be yourself in dealing with clients because you never know when you could be ordered to testify under oath or end the relationship. Make rules, don’t break them. Never say, Rolfing can “”do”" anything, especially about pain, do not create expectations. It is also wise to separate the intake interview and the first session to give both parties time to gauge the potential or lack thereof. Some clients will jump around from every Rolfer in town so as to navigate control of the therapeutic relations. Don’t get caught in the Victim Triangle.

“”What is Rolfing?”" Rolfing is an inquiry to the optimal functioning of the human being, so learn to tolerate ambiguity. It is a science, an art, a philosophy and psychology. It is action and non-action. It requires the practitioner to immerse him or herself in it completely, to merge with it. Honor the process by being completely unattached to expectations. Rolfing is the optimal functioning of the therapeutic relationship; so don’t offer what the client doesn’t want. Don’t get caught in the trap of “”trying”" to legitimize Rolfing as if it needed recognition. This does not need recognition, it facilitates resource and points to a potential of higher order that does, and this is the manifestation of health in the context of the therapeutic relationship. Rolfing is always changing and adapting to the way of the human being. This, applied appropriately, is ethics at it’s best.

In 2002 Les Kertay spoke at the annual meeting about ethics and therapeutic relationships and it was my intent to communicate the content within the context of Rolfing as he did. Ethics are the principles of the therapeutic relationship and Rolfing is our gift as somatic therapist to engage life fully.

The Certified Rolfing Ten Series has the potential to reduce pain and release tension in the connective and myofascial tissue of the body associated with TMJ, CTS, RLS, Fibromyalgia, Sciatica, Fascitis, Bunions, Scoliosis, and Cerebral Palsy. Fascial asymmetries can cause foot, leg, knee, hip, back, shoulder, neck, arm, hand, and head pain; integration therapy is necessary. Orthopedic, Chiropractic, Physical, and Massage Therapist recognize Rolfing and Rolf Movement as premium pain management utilizing Structural, Functional, and Postural Integration. Before and after photos of some of my clients proven results available only on my website.

John Barton, Certified Rolfer & Rolfing Fort Worth, Texas/Dallas, TX

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Tags: ethics, business, corporate, code, training

Remember, irrespective of who is going to hear about your money pitch, prior to lending you a cent they would demand to see your business plan.

So, what is a business plan? It is a document that contains answers to all the questions that anybody interested in lending your company money would have and also contains your business goals and what you plan to do. It should say-”I’m done gauging the pitfalls and obstacles this plan may face, I have seen it from all possible perspectives, and this is what I think…”

The very first question that your plan must answer is: what is the product or the service my company is providing? The answer to this you know and you must explain it in very clear terms so that it is easy for the readers to understand. Also include why you choose this service or product.

The step following this is to identify your customers and consumers also why you choose them. Include details like country, state, sex, age, language etc. Also include what makes you different and stand out. How and in what areas can you beat your competitors. The plan must also contain all the expenses, equipments and staff costs.

You can also put in a few graphs and charts explaining your profits or losses also a detailed market analysis. Your business plan must exhibit that you are capable of earning enough profits each month. In case it is the first time you are doing this, you can hire a business plan consultant to help you out.

Finally the best thing that you could do is to go through a real business plan that has been a success and study what all it includes and how it has been written. This way you can gauge the dos and the don’ts yourself and be a better judge of what all to include in your business plan.

You may wish to read more at: Free Examples Business Plans and Free Business Plan Templates.

Dixita is an article writer for various organizations across the globe. This is the first time I am trying out article writing for myself.

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Tags: businnes, ethics, investor, investment, company

“Americans and Canadians may share the same continent, but they have differences (as well as similarities) in behavior and etiquette. Here we take a look at the how to deal business in Canada.

They value individualism – Just like any English-speaking citizen, including American, Canadians value individualism highly. For them, success is measured by personal achievement.

They are open about everything except themselves – Canadians are open to discussions about anything. However, they tend to hold their personal privacy off limits to all except for relatives and close friends.

Ethnocentrism is high – A lot of Canadians think highly of their own culture, and every other culture-including that of Americans-are judged according to their perspective. This belief of considering their owns culture as superior to other cultures reflects best in the French province of Quebec.

Plan for a very cold climate – Stuff your travel bags with a lot of fall and winter clothing especially during wintertime when the country is at its coldest. Remember, even its summers are cold.

Dress conservatively – Men should wear a dark conservative business suit with tie, especially if you are dealing business in an urban setting. Your business wardrobe should be based on classic likes such as suits with a traditional lapel width, in colors of either navy, gray, or black, and shirts in white and light blue. Meanwhile, women should wear a conservative business suit or dress, using classic lines and colors in mind. Avoid wearing anything “”trendy”" on a business meeting. If you are dealing business in a rural area, be a little less formal yet sticking to the conservative side.

Dress casually outside the boardroom – If you are not working, or still dealing business during an outdoor activity like playing golf, casual wear works best. The weather and activity will dictate what you would be wearing.

Be careful when doing the “”V”" sign – A “”V for Victory”" hand signal is considered an insult in Canada if your palm is facing yourself. Do this sign with your palm facing away.

Dates are written differently – Americans are used to writing dates in a “”month-day-year”" format, while Canadians write their dates in a “”day-month-year”" manner. For instance, today is 25 August 2007 (spoken as either “”twenty-five August”" or “”twenty-fifth of August”").

Do not eat while walking in public – As much as some of us may be used to the concept of “”street food,”" Canadians prefer taking their snacks in a cafe or a restaurant.

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Tags: business, ethics, code, society, article

How do small business owners deal with the real world situation when employees suddenly up and quit their posts? It frequently happens with little or no explanation. This can be troublesome to employers, because a great deal of time and expense goes into hiring and training staff. Fortunately, this can be handled through investigative technique and a willingness to communicate in a supportive way with an employee.

In every business organization, no matter the size, it is immensely beneficial to have a designated ethics officer. It is this person’s responsibly to handle communication breakdowns and unethical conduct. When an employee gives notice that they are intending to quit their job, it would be up to the ethics office to investigate why they are quitting and take measures to attempt to resolve any issues surrounding that decision. Often, once the issues are resolved, the employee determines not to quit after all and goes on to contribute a high rate of productivity to the company.

Ethics officers have been trained in the knowledge that:

- People are basically good.

- A staff member will attempt to protect a benefactor (small business owner) from damage caused by unethical behavior.

- A staff member will eventually quit his post if he is the perpetrator of the unethical conduct.

For example, if an employee has been going home every Friday at clock out time with a box full of paper clips, pens and other office sundries that belong to the company with a justification of any sort for doing so, he is a perfect candidate for quitting the company. Because an employee is basically good and ultimately does not wish to hurt his benefactor, he would rather quit the company than continue to steal from it. The ethics division, in gathering data for a case, would take steps to determine what unethical conduct the employee had undertaken. If it was revealed as having happened, then the ethics officer would further investigate to discover reasons for the employee’s conduct in the first place. In handling and resolving the unethical conduct, the ethics officer would have the employee list:

- Details of the act his or her unethical behavior.

- Exact time and location of the act.

- The effect those actions had on other employees, departments and all else involved.

The ethics officer would proceed then to discover any communication breaks that had affected the employee’s state of well being and productivity. The officer would seek to understand if the employee:

- Understood company policy that affected his or her post.

- Had thorough understanding of the requirements of his or her post.

- Had been correctly handed off the responsibility for handling his or her post.

- Knew the company system for communicating with other posts and departments.

In any area where the employee lacked information or understanding, he would promptly be trained and upgraded. Following this basic system of handling ethics has proven to be effective for small business owners in reducing employee attrition rates. As an aside – when an employee requests an unscheduled raise in pay, make your decision based on their current pay rate compared with their productivity. If they don’t meet the productivity requirements for the raise they are requesting, take the time to help them determine how they can increase their productivity to warrant the additional pay.

Robbi Gunter is a staff writer for Strong Business Credit, a free educational web resource for small business owners and businesses seeking to obtain business financing and credit cards.

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Tags: business, ethics, corporate, training, code

Customers are what business is all about. Yet they are too often taken for granted by those who provide services and goods. How the consumer views the marketer is critical to successfully promoting their products.

Yet many marketers try to deceive or hide the truth from the very customers that they depend on. Some marketers look on their potential customers as sheep that are too stupid to see when they are being misled. Got news for you people are not sheep and are a lot more intelligent than they are given credit. The only difference between the seller and the buyer is that one has something to sell and the other seeks purchase certain goods or services.

Both the marketer and the consumer are human beings with varied views and beliefs. No one in this world wants to be deceived, conned, or mistreated. Then why would someone who is in business for themselves want to tarnish their name and reputation by misleading customers because someday down the road the consumer will become aware of this and discontinue using said merchant. Sometimes the authorities of the merchant’s location may find such practices harmful and bring legal proceedings against them.

Businesses that want to be long standing and successful should be ethical in their dealings with the public. Just because someone appears to be getting outstanding results from doing things less than ethical does not give the good business person some green light to do the same. Following in the footsteps of those that are less than honest may seem glamorous to some but the final outcome may be not too favorable to those who choose such a path.

Anything in life worth doing takes commitment and dedicated work. A good merchant seeks to provide the best services and goods to those they serve. A good merchant is always concerned about their customer needs by offering great customer service when a problem arises. The merchant should seek to provide complete and honest details about the services they provide and the goods that they sell.

When sales and service procedures change for those you service be as detailed as possible about changes and how it will affect the consumer. The more open and forthright you are with your customer the fewer problems and misunderstandings there should be. You will never satisfy everyone no matter how upfront and honest you maybe that are just something that happens from time to time. Treating those you serve with kindness and respect will help smooth the way when some misunderstanding does arise. Be quick to respond to problems your customers may present to you seeking to find solutions to remedy their problem. Their problem may seem silly to you but to the one who has the problem it is serious matter that demands your full attention.

The bottom line is the more you are able to make your customers happy the end result is that your life should be more successful and that makes you happy. The merchant’s main goal is to provide the best benefits to the potential consumer and convert them into life long customers of your products and services. How your customers and potential customers perceive your character and ethics has a direct bearing on how you will succeed or fail in your business pursuits.

William R Brandenburg. Visit him here

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Tags: ethical, value, moral, issues, ethics

“Any corporate social responsibility strategy (CSR) must be fully integrated with the organisation’s brand management and commercial strategy. This means that the CSR strategy must support the underlying commercial requirements for the business and deliver to its customers or the ultimate consumer safe goods, products and services that are fit for purpose and deliver optimum quality, optimum price and the expected level of customer service. Internal and external stakeholders are increasingly becoming more concerned about the way an organisation delivers its commercial and marketing strategy especially how it balances the economic, social and environmental aims and objectives within this strategy. Ethical objectives that need to be embedded within the CSR element of organisational strategy include:

- Service related issues – service design, management of customer care initiatives, quality assurance and sustainable sourcing and supplier approval, ethical trading protocols;

- Product related issues – product design, quality assurance, quality control, sustainable sourcing and supplier approval, ethical trading protocols;

- Operational issues – management of resources including raw materials, land, energy, water, control of waste produced as a result of activities, including disposal, packaging recycling strategies, management of logistics including transportation of goods and product distribution strategies;

- Colleague issues – development of social policy and practice including worker facilities, terms and conditions of employment, personal welfare, health and safety, training and development;

- Community issues – management of the organisation impact on the local, national or global community including environmental issues, such as noise, smell, visual impact, use of resources, production and disposal of waste;

- Brand and organisational risk management – management of legislative, commercial, operational and brand risks

Does your organisational strategy address all these areas or do you need to revisit your management of CSR?

Read more here.

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Tags: ethics, social, responsibility, code, work

“When visiting China, whether it’s for business, pleasure or for both, you will want to take the time to brush up on Chinese etiquette before you go. If you’re going to China for business, here are a few important facts about handing your business cards out to prospective clients and business associates.

• When handing someone your business card, make sure you’re handing it to them with both hands and be careful to face the writing toward the person you’re giving it to. Follow with “I’m pleased to meet you.”

• When receiving a business card do not place it in your pocket or purse immediately, this is considered very rude.

• If you know a couple months ahead of time you’re going to China, it’s a good idea to get your business cards printed in English on one side and Cantonese or Mandarin on the other.

• If seated at a conference table, place your business card in front of you on the table. This shows respect to all who are there.

• Use simplified Chinese characters for China and not classical characters from Hong Kong and Taiwan, there is a difference. Remember too that China is the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan is the Republic of China.

• Business gifts are always reciprocated, not to do so is bad etiquette.

When you take the time to learn a little something about the people of the country your visiting it will save you much embarrassment and keep you from offending someone. This is especially important when doing business with people from different countries. If your traveling for pleasure, you need to know how not to make those from different cultures uncomfortable, even when you think your doing something generous like giving a gift. Below are a few helpful tips about giving gifts to the Chinese.

• Chinese people are required to refuse a gift two or three times so be persistent but gentle. Also be sensitive to genuine refusals.

• Never ever give cash.

• Don’t be too cheap when choosing your gift. You will be seen as an “iron rooster,” i.e. getting a good gift from you is like getting a feather out of an iron rooster.

• If possible, give gifts in pairs since Chinese philosophy believes in balance.

• It’s proper to give gifts for celebrations, thanks for assistance given and even to soften up for future favors.

• Never give a gift for no reason, or “just because.” It’s considered offensive and in bad taste. A witness should be present also whenever giving gifts.

• When receiving a gift from the Chinese, do not open them unless they insist that you do so.

Shirley Tan is the owner of My Business Gifts (see here), known for their unique and superior quality business gifts at bargain prices was started in 2006 to offer high quality gifts for businesses and corporations at affordable prices.

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Tags: business, ethics, workplace, code, professional

“The purpose of business is to generate maximum returns for its owners and shareholders. So therefore should the business pursue all activities that enhance profitability and increase the value of the business for the owners and / or shareholders?

I also believe that a business should behave ethically in achieving the above purpose. It is not right just to operate within the letter of the law. Businesses should also try and serve their local community and help its employees lead better lives. They should examine every decision they make based on profitability, long term business value and social responsibility.

By having real policies in place that take care of your employees and the local community it might be argued that long term this will enhance your business brand and over time lead to higher profitability.

By constantly training members of staff and wherever possible promoting from within the organisation will lead to employees that feel empowered to work harder and make better decisions. Having regards to the true well being of your employees will lead to a healthier and therefore happier workforce.

By reducing waste and promoting recycling at every opportunity, overheads will be reduced and in the longer term lead to better shareholder value. It is staggering how much resources including energy are wasted by larger companies. Having a regular energy audit and investing long term to reduce demand can only serve to make the business more efficient.

Many businesses try to serve their community by supporting local charities and sponsoring local people to better their lives. There are many ways to do this including education, sports and the environment. In the short term there will be very few perceivable benefits in terms of profitability but these actions will serve to enhance the business brand and increase profitability over the longer term.

Greed is no longer good and focusing purely on profits is unacceptable to your existing and potential customers. By embracing business ethics and social responsibility the business can benefit from increased goodwill.

Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal. This Business Franchise Opportunity is for people who would like to work from home and be their own boss.

Business Franchises and UK Business Directory Business Franchise Opportunity

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Tags: business, ethics, articles, personal, professional

“Before we even begin to discuss some of the general business practices in the United States, there are two key points in American culture that we need to understand. Individualism and egalitarianism are two important elements in American culture that have significant effects on their business etiquettes.

According to the research and studies of Geert Hofstede, a Professor of International Management at the University of Limburg at Maastricht, the Netherlands and a notable expert on business culture having done comprehensive studies on values in the workplace, the United States has a high level of individualism in its society.

This is the reason behind Americans show more self-reliant behaviors and, aside from themselves and close family members, tend to form loose bonds with other people. American culture emphasizes and practically awards those who take the initiative and those whose goals are towards personal achievements. Status and age doesn’t matter much and what is looked at are one’s personal achievements.

Meanwhile, egalitarianism or the concept of equality is important as well. Americans believe that they should be provided with equal rights, equal social obligations, and equal opportunities. Equality, however, is still based on individual achievements. Americans feel and believe that working hard and doing their best deserve success and better financial gains.

This concept of equality influences how Americans treat people that are richer, older, and authority figure. Americans generally don’t show much respect to people who are financially and/or socially higher in status. Professional titles are very seldom used and people prefer calling each other by their first names.

You’ll find that American business culture is very task centered. Americans are direct and will say “”no”" if they want to. It’s normal for them to criticize work, performance, or persons in public so don’t feel embarrassed if you find yourself in the receiving end.

Furthermore, punctuality is considered sacred in American business culture. People are expected to attend meetings and appointments on time and deadlines are expected to be met on the dot. Failure to do so is often frowned upon and is seen as highly disrespectful. Being punctual and meeting deadlines are further emphasized due to the “”time is money”" philosophy which is practiced by the general business community.

Americans are willing to work long hours and overtime due to their work ethic. Office/business hierarchy is also being practiced with stress being given on company organizational structure. However, because of individualism in American society and business culture, the working environment is highly competitive with emphasis on personal competence, professionalism, and individual accountability.

With regards to some business etiquettes, firm handshakes signal the start and end of business meetings. Show of sincerity and interest is shown by maintaining direct eye contact during the initial greeting and during important parts of a conversation. Exchanging business cards is viewed as an ordinary or casual activity and follows no formal rules.

When you do business in the US, it is important that one pays attention to guidelines and rules dictated by business policies, procedures, and laws. Be careful when giving gifts, since the practice is often discouraged by many companies since the gesture can easily by misinterpreted as a bribe.

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Tags: business, ethics, code, society, article

“So you want high business ethics? Well, that may just be a pipe dream if the data from existing universities is confirmed through actual behaviors.

In 2005, Duke University released one report that revealed over 75% of high school students admitted to cheating. That number climbs to over 90% if copying by sharing homework is included.

An extensive article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Regan McMahon published on September 9, 2007 shows the depth of cheating and the potential impact to the business world within the secondary education world.

And the graduate world is also a mecca for cheating students. A report published in 2006 by the Academy of Management Learning and Education journal suggested that 56% of the MBA students admitted to cheating. These are potentially the future business leaders. Other reports released have suggested that soon to be lawyers and teachers also practice cheating on a consistent basis.

The American business economy has already experienced the affects of bad business ethics. When people point the finger at companies such as Enron and Arthur Anderson, the unethical behavior was not caused by the organization, but rather these individuals were already unethical. Again, the belief that everyone does it was probably not far from their conscious actions.

The excuses for cheating are many just like in the work place where business ethics are violated on a daily basis. However, what is interesting to note is that when everything is peeled away, the belief that everyone does it whether they do or do not is driving this cheating behavior.

This belief that everyone does it is not only regulated to business ethics, but human behavior in general. Children complain to parents well so and so can do it. Adults complain to other adults about so and so doing something.

To change business ethics demands that the beliefs driving the attitudes demonstrated through the behaviors must be identify. Ignoring these beliefs will only make the current situation worse.

Simply speaking, would you like to increase the overall performance of your organization? Then you may find the FREE Leadership Audit of interest here.

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Tags: ethics, business, corporate, code, training

“Are the business work ethics and values in your organization suffering? Would you like to improve these critical skills necessary for business success? Consider, then looking at the beliefs that are supporting these values and ethics.

Let’s get to the heart of the matter? What do you believe is keeping your employees from the bottom to the top or the top to the bottom from consistently demonstrating high business ethics?

First, let’s take care of some logistical issues so to speak. You must have a written values statement that is explained to all new employees when they hire in. This values statement must be demonstrated by everyone to everyone, both internal and external customers (employees and clients).

Your employees must be held accountable for their ethical behavior or lack thereof. There must no be any exceptions because exceptions only reaffirm the current internal belief systems of your employees. These belief systems started why back in school or within the family when so and so received special treatment.

Then and only then can you begin to address the real obstacle to changing business ethics – the foundational belief systems of everyone within your company. And, no, by belief systems I am not referring to spiritual or religious beliefs even though they may be part of this overall system. But, rather, belief systems are the mental schema from which we take action regarding current events.

Every human being has a foundational belief system. This system is comprised on 3 key elements: Knowledge, experience and emotions.

In the 1960’s a Swiss developmental psychologist by the name of Jean Piaget released his findings from a comprehensive study of his children in how they learned. Many so called other professional psychologists debunked his study because of the limited pool. Yet, Piaget revealed a lot about how we as humans make sense of what we are exposed to within what we call learning.

Human beings learn by matching new knowledge with existing experiences with the goal to make sense of it or learn it. If for some reason, the new knowledge does not make sense, the human being casts it off and learning was not successful. This is why some young people or adults get it while others do not.

Within our belief systems, we have learned knowledge and hopefully have grown through these experiences. Yet, without understanding the impact of emotions within this process, is where many miss the boat.

For example, how we felt about our experiences is very much ingrained within our memory. My father modeled reading and showed great emotion when sharing a favorite book or explaining something he learned. I became an avid reader for two reasons: His physical modeling of reading and the emotional joy from reading. Therefore, I embraced a belief reflected through an attitude demonstrated by my behaviors that reading was an incredibly good thing and had tremendous value.

My mother on the other hand did not enjoy reading. Consequently, my younger sister saw my mother’s behavior and to this day she is not a great reader because she truly does not enjoy it. Her belief is that reading is not as valuable as my belief. In neither case, no one is wrong or right, but the belief needs to be identify.

A recent survey released by PopCap Games demonstrates how beliefs affect business ethics. The results of this survey suggested that white collar executives believed it was OK to waste up to 1 hour per day playing video games while on the clock. Their reasons for several from needing some down time to just relaxing. However, their beliefs were telling them that is was Okay to take this time away from the company. Again, until you identify the beliefs, you will not change behaviors.

There are many more examples regarding the impact of belief systems on business ethics. People for the most part know what they need to do to get to where they want to go. However, until the beliefs which are reflected through attitudes are changed, your people will still not want to change. And it is this want to which ultimately drives business ethics.

P.S. And if you do not believe that beliefs are the key to changing behaviors, how many times in a day do you hear someone use the word believe or belief compared to know?

Would you like to increase the productivity of your employees? Then you may find the FREE Leadership Audit of interest here.

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Tags: business, ethics, corporate, code, managing

“Operating like outlaws in the old west gold rush days, has been the order of the day for most residential mortgage loan originators the last several years as everybody now finally sees, and can no longer avoid acknowledging. An epidemic of greed and fraud prevailed nationwide for several years, with our industry got flooded by unethical and unbelievably poorly educated, trained and supervised personnel who were the industry’s front-line, exploiting the public – a virtually frenzied wild-west gold-rush mentality.

Those heady days of this last cycle have at last ended. From an industry high of over 500 thousand employed, which grew since the last correction in 1998; recently we have lost only 100,000 people so far. 200+ thousand of the half million people, rushed into our business during that period, incorrectly thinking they were going to be in a “sales industry.” When both you and I know, the customers believed they were speaking with a professional mortgage expert who would look out for their best interest and treat them with the utmost good faith, and not compromise their rights or interests in favor of another’s, including a right or interest of the loan officer/mortgage broker.

But instead borrowers more often were talking with a ‘used car sales Big Commissioned closer type’ individual – that fact of life cannot be seriously denied at this point, by any industry observer. There’s a major conflict as between big commissions/greed on the one hand, and ethical behavior on the other, an issue I have written about several times in the past. Because, for example, certain foul-hearty loan products ‘could’ be originated doesn’t mean they ‘should’ be.

I think everybody who survives this correction crisis, and particularly the various industry discussion boards, need to STOP enabling substandard, mediocre, and ethically challenged originators, they need to be given the boot so they don’t infect the business for everybody else this next go around, wherever they are found. You know what I mean, those with weak values, little integrity, and poor or on-existent ethical standards – the ones where the commission check and how much money the make, is their focus. On these boards we all can see a post that says “”which wholesalers are easy to get approved with, or which ones don’t pull broker’s credit or how about ‘what subprime lenders are left that do high LTV’s with 580 FICO stated wage earners?’ or lenders who don’t do appraisal reviews? or who disregards co borrower’s scores? Or who doesowest score for stated income on foreclosure bailout? There are literally thousands of examples I have seen, and if you frequent these boards so have you.

They basically say ‘what is the path of least resistance so I can make a big score (commission) and what can I do to ensure I do the least amount of work possible ….’ And, not just those questions, but all the ones that reveal they don’t belong in the biz. I see questions like those on all the boards I read. ENABLERS then jump up and say “”Hey I can help!”" and then direct those brain-dead clowns to the answer … and the cycle continues … we all need to stop Enabling those that do not belong in our industry! People that ask these sort of questions are the ones that stuff loans into wholesalers, which then move upstream, become part of securitizations, which then become downgraded, and at a final point hurt all of us! People’s retirement funds, and many money fund investments buy MBS’s (many recently loaded up with crap loans).

These people are easy to spot and it’s up to YOU to protect the industry from them. Just look what they did to us this last cycle! I’ve written about this before, you ARE your brother’s keeper in this industry! They’ve been a major contributing factor in tanking 150+ lenders, closing down countless brokerages, and putting homeowners in situations where their families must face possibly living in a tent!

I think another terrible example, are some in the industry training sector as well. Especially the podium pitch-man types, who mostly work to pump up your ego – you know the ones that say they will ‘reveal the secrets of how to predictably, reliably, and repeatedly get $10,000, $20,000, and even $25,000 checks on every mortgage – month in and month out, while only working part-time!’ Or how about this one ‘Discover How You Can Quickly And Easily Make An ADDITIONAL $100,000/Yr. Even in this Down Market – GUARANTEED!’ Or even those that promote (RESPA violation) paying kickbacks to friends, for referrals etc. When recommending that other originators access these types, or you even speaking positively about them, tends to help contaminate the industry with more problematical originators dealing with the public. If you’re one of them and you say “the wholesalers did it with their reckless programs!”

In small measure you are right, many of them were indeed tempting – but the bottom line there, is that the guidelines didn’t read “”ignore USC 1001 and section IX of the 1003 ….”" Fraud is fraud and bad loans are bad loans … if you ever put income on an application that was not your borrower´s (solely) and/or if you wrote an option arm for someone who was on salary or fixed income then indeed YOU were the problem and I hope you change your ways and join with me and be an ethical partner in our industry. Let me say it a bit bluntly. More than 100,000 front-line originators made a killing (income wise) the last 7+ years. Now because of their ethical short-comings, most are gone or are on their way out. Without strong moral values and high ethical standards you cannot last in this industry for four decades like I have.

Article by Peter Samuel Cugno, Chairman & CEO of Secret! University, the educational division of Americas Money Center, Inc. with 40+ years experience in the subprime industry niche. Questions or comments may be directed online here.

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Tags: ethics, management, strategic, planning, thinking

“Much is written about the lack of integrity, poor work ethics and business ethics of the rank and file employees. Yet, is your management team or executives costing you business because of poor ethics and no integrity?

One example of poor work ethics and business ethics if the recent survey released by PopCap Games in the 3rd quarter of 2007. The results from this survey suggested that white collar executives wasted more time each day playing video games that those that they managed. Now this is a bad thing, but it is not the most serious behavior that affects the overall performance within any organization.

Many times I have had to coach small business owners to corporate executives who have had to deal with the unethical behavior of those they are negotiating with specific to work contracts. These coaching sessions usually center around a subordinate within an organization being given authority to negotiate a contract. Yes, my clients know they should have had a signed contract or least a letter of intent, but they are from the old school of high business ethics.

A gentleman’s agreement happens over breakfast or lunch because of the personal integrity between the parties. The vendor is told to proceed. Yet, when the contract needs to be signed, the subordinate’s supervisor starts changing the scope of the work. As an instructional designer we call this scope creep and can be very costly to any vendor.

Then the vendor is asked to make more concessions. Usually more is demanded for less money and in a shorter delivery time frame. What happens is that the potential vendor feels very used and abused. Also, the vendor believes that the subordinate has been set up by management to keep upper management’s image clean and above board.

When incidents like this happen, the end result is that business suffers. And the reason is that upper management is unethical, plain and simple. Of course, management may claim that they are doing what is best for the company, but that is not true.

Best for the company should always be measured against the organization’s values. If the best violates the values, then those actions are not the best ones. Of course, if there is not a values statement this also suggests there is not strategic plan and so everyone’s behaviors are up for grab.

When we look at the numerous failed companies such as Enron to Anderson including the recent mortgage industry challenges, the main cause for these failures are bad business ethics. Private industry is not alone as not for profit and government elected and appointed officials are equal and willing partners to bad business and personal ethics.

Bottom line all of these bad ethics are bad for business and costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars. Simply speaking, people want business as well as personal relationships with individuals who have high ethics. So if your bottom is suffering, check your ethics and those of your executive management team.

Would you like to increase the productivity of your employees? Then you may find the FREE Leadership Audit of interest here.

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Tags: business, ethics, responsibility, values, training

Company values are more important that we think as they create the cultural context in which we work, define how we interact with other employees and the attitudes we adopt towards customers. Company values are often perceived as being imposed by the organisation but an effective organisational culture enables a two way process to occur where employees help to influence the direction of the corporate values system, through their individual beliefs and approaches they adopt. An organisation that doesn’t adjust to reflect changing values will quickly become stagnant and obsolete.

2. Company Values Define How Employees Behave

Company values are essential for the day to day approach that employees adopt in the workplace. Different organisations may foster different behaviours in their staff through their company values. For example an organisation that has clearly defined policies on employee conduct and behaviour is likely to create a culture in which respect for other staff and clients or customers is high on the agenda.

Alternatively, an organisation that has few formal policies pertaining to staff behaviour in the workplace leaves the individual employee to define their own sense of what is and isn’t appropriate. This can lead to conflicts with other staff as one individual’s concept of what is acceptable behaviour can differ wildly from another colleague.

3. Company Values Bring Stability

Employees like to work in a stable and secure workplace. Company values create order and enable the working environment to operate more smoothly. Without company values there would be no uniform process of achieving goals or dealing with situations that arise, which would leave staff feeling exposed and vulnerable. When company values exist, they provide employees with a clearly defined approach to work life.

4. Company Values Are Important To Customers

Company values are not only important to employees but also to customers. Some customers choose to use the services of one company over another because of the values base that they have chosen to pursue. Those organisations that adopt ethical approaches to their business dealings through offering fair trade agreements or who are perceived as less exploitative, often benefit more in the long term from customer loyalty than those who are just out to make a quick buck at any cost.

Nowhere is this being more acutely highlighted than within Chinese companies, which for the past five years have produced billions of dollars of cheap goods with little or no regard for employee welfare, the effect their resources stripping is having on other countries and the lack of respect for health and safety guidelines.

It is only recently that Western consumers are realising that the company values of many, but not all, of these Chinese companies, are profit rather than safety orientated.

5. Company Values Provide a Standard Approach

Customers also like to know what they are getting and company values often play a significant role in this process. Take for example a company like MacDonald’s. They have clear values about how they interact with customers and their approach to business is almost identical across the world. You know that if you walk into a MacDonald’s restaurant in Russia, The UK, Australia, The US or anywhere around the world, you are likely to be dealt with in the same manner. Customer’s like this because they like to know what they are getting and company values are important in delivering this.

Summary

Finally we must remember that a company is only as good as its constituent parts, in this case its employees. If the employees didn’t come to work then the company wouldn’t exist. As such a company is not an entity in itself, it can’t think or act for itself and therefore its values are in fact only a reflection of what its employees deem to be important. As such organisational culture or values, need to constantly change to accommodate the many diverse needs of its staff.

This article was written by J Dawkins who created Friends and Money in March 2007. His site is dedicated to providing reviews of paid survey, social networking, and cash back shopping communities. His aim is encourage visitors to Make Friends, Earn Money online.

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Tags: ethics, definition, business, human, morals

The book of proverbs says: Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

The idea being that either your word is good or it is not.

Is it just me or are business ethics a lost art today. Every day it seems we see businessmen selling their souls for the almighty dollar. We have seen this in sleazy politics forever.

With all the scandals we see in the press it seems that many have forgotten the simple principle of The Golden Rule today. Or is it just this generation? Not really! If you look back over they pages of history, greed and avarice have always existed and drawn many men and women astray.

I know it is not popular for many Americans to be in church today, and yet, is not that where, our training to stay on the right path comes from? Many of those who have written self help literature will admit that all the foundation of the entire self help industry was and is the Bible.

When I can, I read a chapter of the biblical proverbs to keep me on the daily straight and narrow path. It is interesting that proverbs contains 31 books. One for each day of the month. I heartily recommend reading proverbs daily to everyone. As you read these chapters over and over, you will continue to see and learn new principles to help you in your daily work.

The wisdom you gain will, hopefully, help you to keep your name from being the latest scandal in morning newspaper headline.

Finally, because good business ethics are so rare in the public’s eye, good ethics is simply good business. Being b

Darryl Van Kirk has been self employed the majority of his life and working from home 9 of the last 10 years. One of his current projects is the web site resource: start-a-work-at-home-business.com His newest business is Discount Grocery and More A Discount Grocery Store in Johnson City, Tn. He is also involved in other home based business ventures.

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Tags: ethics, business, research, articles, code

“It took a while to recollect my thought to gathered my views and put it to writing. I was able to consolidate it, in reference from those events that trigger my curiosity. The past and present event that give me a sense of better understanding to be well equip and to handle a dynamic changes once in a while. A week from the first release of its initial series, its give a sense to fill the gap to put a level of continuity and write the second part series.

I find Saturday as a typical day to updates my writing. I run some search from my laptop to view my writing over some known search engine in the Internet. I run a full path search with the given title “Unmasking the Business Phantom Part 1 – Playing business without rehearsal”, and it give me a result just a somewhat fraction of a second, and its listed on the top of the first page. Several lines down from my view, there are entry with the very same title, but belong to different identities or entities as I may call it, that is posted on the web. It feed my curiosity to take a glance and view its content. It is my writing from the very moment I look at it, except it is posted by different author on the later date with minor changes on its content.

It gives me a broader view and level of understanding about the concept of right to state your ownership on a tangible asset. But for this one it may be a non-tangible or a copyright to considered. To emphases my own way to interpreting tangible asset on the a business perspective I stated it this way:

On my recent article titled “ The business I See It”. In reference to that in a re stated format that (we put people on the businesses who are well capable) and in that aspect they are require to be tangible same and parallel to tangible asset. And the Business Phantom is most likely to be same as a tangible asset. Tangible asset in business perspective are those peoples that whom you can entrust your business, someone who could interact from the bottom to top-level organization and has the capacity to overlay a solid foundation that will withstand oversize business adversities in each maximum extend. “I will be the last man standing before my ship fade away from the leveled horizon of the open sea”. I like to take that as one of my own quotation out from sizable capacity of our own mental thinking to embrace creativity.

On the other hand given to emphases a related approach to non-tangible asset, in my own view it may fall to a category of copyrighted work. Those work include from various artist such as photographer, musician, and like other creative professional with no exemption for writers. I may be out of the scope for my subject matter when I will over emphases the issue of copyright. Maybe there’s a need for me to create a separate article to fully comprehend ideas coherent to the title of the subject matter.

To the Phantom, the passage of clues is yet to be unveils, and your presence may be unnoticeable but your existence is undeniable. But am still going to search.

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Tags: ethics, review, law, business, training

“Laguna, a place somewhere in the Philippines, 8pm. Darkness has unveils the whole place as early as 6pm, but it does not stop those kids from keep on playing. Playing hide and seek, a perfect well-suited environment, for playing the right game at the right the time. Rules are well stated and everyone is mandated to comply. Each of them has their own way to win the game, and there’s a sense of shared commonly among those kids. They are taking advantage and benefited from total darkness.

It may be in the opposite effect in the real life business if it embraces the aspect of navigating blind from the concept of child play. There is a need to master the art of navigating blind and it involve “A play of Trial and Error” because playing business without rehearsal is well decoded interpretation of business failure. I’ll liked to take that as my second quotation

The concept failure has been long encoded to the very existence of every being, from the day we were born, but it was interpreted not as failure but a series of repeated processes from the mind of a babies. It is estimated that before a babies are able to walk, they had at least encountered 273 falls before their able to stand on their feet. And without those repeated event from our views as failure, we will make our self with no difference from other Gods creation that walks in four feet.

In my views there is shared commonality among businesses that they mandated to comply whether it’s a direct or indirect business competition. There should a played rehearsal on the business level at the lighter term in organic means of bench marking whether internal, competitive or any other type. Likewise the played rehearsal will give a safe fail mechanism in the eventuality of total failure before it even happened. We make decision based on the amount of available resources that we had on our hands, and based on that we gain result. And result itself varies accordingly from people to people and business-to-business who are making the decisions.

It is the capacity of a man to dwell upon to the ever-changing nature of business as it self evolve to exist and adapt to serve its purpose. To benefits us through providing services that entice underlying competition within them selves. These provide a guaranteed improvement for product and services before reaching the hand of end users and equate market value for that product and services at its highest degree.

Among those area between client and service provider it may seems and lead me to confusion to where the business phantom might be walking and making its path to unveil his existence’s. To some point he might present him self as a client blending to the market industries as a customers seeking for a good or a bad product and service and learning from it. Or might as well to consider as a service provide doing a business anonymously, interacting with the same kind. Or might as well put my curiosity out of the play for now and continue searching.

The evening is long but the kids at play has decided to temporarily end their games, and every one in my assumption has a pair shared of competition, strategies, and well adapted trial and error to win the game. A call to my name “Bernard” by one of the kid upon passing by give me a sense, to might as well temporary pause my writing… Sunday 10pm September 9.

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Tags: moral, ethics, business, philosophy, values

“Does it come as a big surprise that a convicted felon—indeed, a white collar criminal—would have developed some thoughts about the topic of ethics? Probably not. Since my conviction I have had plenty of time to ponder the idea of ethics, and I’ve conducted some research on my own about the subject. In doing so, I’ve received tons of advice. I must say, I wish I’d had this information at the beginning of my career.

In 1999 I began serving a 21 month federal prison sentence for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. The crime involved four real estate investors submitting fraudulent documentation in order to get approved for residential home loans. I was their loan officer. After the first few transactions, I knew in my heart that some of the documents I accepted were fakes. Over a nine month period I gradually started participating in the profits.

I have been told by some people that my crime was “fraud lite.” Some have said that I was unlucky; wrong place at the wrong time. Well, there is no such thing as fraud lite, and luck has nothing do with making the right decisions. I committed a crime. I am not proud of it and I’m certainly no hero for talking about it now.

However, there is an ethics lesson to be learned in all of this.

Dictionary.com defines ethics as “a set of principles of right conduct.”

My understanding of being ethical was that you base your decision to do or not to do something on the feeling you get in your stomach. If that’s the case, how do you teach “stomach feeling” to someone?

Perhaps this is what led me astray.

In a business’ Code of Ethics, you can’t possibly account for every situation. For every principle of correct conduct; for every “right” way to act in one situation, there is another, different situation that follows, that may require yet a different “right” way to act.

I was traveling in my car with my boys, four and seven years old. In the rear-view mirror I saw the older one punch the younger one on the arm. The young one howled, “aaahhhhhhhhooooooowwwww-auh!” I said, “Hey! Don’t punch your brother.” Immediately, the older one slapped his little brother in the arm. I said, “Don’t slap your brother either.” This was followed by a poke, which I followed with, “don’t poke.” A tickle – “Don’t tickle.” Then just a touch. Finally, I said, “keep your hands to yourself. Period!” The instigator was reduced to leveling a taunting glare at his younger sibling.

This could have gone on for hours. I finally gave them the ol’, “Don’t make me come back there!” (Which of course makes no sense since, I was driving.)

Doesn’t this example prove that there are simply too many variable situations in the real world? Yes, but through my experiences, I have learned that ethics isn’t about situations. It is about people and their behavior.

Ethics doesn’t stand for “what to do.” It stands for “how to behave.” Finally understanding this made ethics less confusing for me.

For employers and leaders, it is imperative that you have a set of principles of right conduct. But to simply disseminate this information in printed format will not be enough. Ethics are best conveyed by example. Additionally, violations of ethical standards must be dealt with and not overlooked, or the unethical behavior will become business as usual.

If you are a member of an organization that adopts a code of ethics, read the printed words and follow the examples of the leadership. Pay attention to the feelings in your stomach. They may not tell you exactly what to do, but it may serve as a red flag. Remember, justifying questionable behavior is nothing more than being dishonest with yourself.

Lead your ethics model by example. Follow your ethics model with honesty.

Take my experiences and words for what they’re worth, coming from a convicted felon. Strive to be honest, diligent, and consistent. Society, your company, your family, and your children need you to stay out of prison.

Jerome Mayne is President and founder of Fraudcon, Inc., a fraud deterrent company. He is the author of the book titled, Life Saving Lessons – the diary of a white collar criminal. As a national keynote speaker and consultant, he has presented to and entertained dozens of trade associations and Fortune 500 companies to keep their people out of prison.

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Tags: ethics, business, moral, theory, corporate

“Here is blatant hypocrisy, deception and carnal corruption. Have business ethics every been so raw and rancid as in this true scenario?

Having seen such a beautiful picture of a young pure powerful Church of Jesus Christ, suddenly the pendulum swings, and this is something we see often in The Bible. It is something we experience in everyday life too. Have you ever noticed that? Everything appears to be going so well and quite suddenly surprise confronts us.

The scene changes, in Acts Chapter 5, in the New Testament, where we read of another aspect of church life which is just as real.

We read of a husband and wife – Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a piece of property. Let’s say, just to get the feel of what was happening, that they got £200,000 for it. They talked it over, and deciding to bring £150,000 and present it to the leadership in The Church, but giving the impression they were offering the entire amount.

Have you ever been tempted to allow people to think you are giving and donating more than you really are? It may present a good impression for a brief moment, but you are kidding no-one.

One of the leaders, Peter, challenges Ananias when he comes with what might be regarded as a substantial offering, “”Why are you lying to the Holy Spirit? Why?

“”You were free to handle the money, weren’t you? Why have you behaved in this way? Whatever made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men – but to God.”"

Ananias dropped down dead. A great reverential fear came upon all who heard what had happened.
Sometimes it can be good to get a real fright. Sometimes it is good to be filled with a healthy fear.

Might this article make you give serious thought to your giving and donating – or perhaps to some other area in your business life?

About three hours later, his wife came into the Jerusalem Fellowship, not knowing what had happened. Peter asks Sapphira some questions. “”Tell me, is this the price you got for the property you sold? Was it £150,000?”" “”YES, that’s right. That’s what we got.”"

Is Peter giving her the opportunity to confess her sins, repent, sort things out and put right what was very wrong? There is no sense of Repentance or Confession, and she too dies.

If there was one thing, God was not going to permit in the Church at this time it was hypocrisy. If this had gone unchecked, it could have wrecked and ruined that young Church.

Hypocrisy wrecks The Church of Jesus Christ quickly, and where money is involved hypocrisy and deception can become dangerous.

Many years ago when I was travelling through Germany on a train a very wise man told me, as we discussed spiritual matters and money – “”Never touch the gold or the glory.”"

If God gives you money give away the surplus. If God uses you in any way, pass all the praise and glory on to Him – never bathe in any of it yourself. What precious advice.

I had been ministering at four Conferences and Preaching Engagements, and each group had given me travelling expenses and gifts of money – and to me, as a youngish preacher and teacher, all this had become a very real question and conundrum. I am so glad it did not become a problem. This wise man provided me with a wise answer, and I am glad I had the guts to put it into practice.

Their sin was that they wanted to be thought of as being as generous as Barnabas, who had given in a generous substantial manner, without paying the cost. There is a COST in PENTECOST.

Jesus Christ was so tender with adulteresses, but blasted hypocrites.

The signs and wonders continued in that young church, but the crowds of people joining evaporated and disappeared. People still came to faith in Jesus Christ, but it was a slightly different situation now.

There are ethical and moral principles here from which every business man could learn. These lessons could rescue a man from years of heartache and pain.

Sandy Shaw

Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children’s Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at this site entitled “”Word from Scotland”" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.

His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.

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Tags: individual, ethics, code, issues, business

“Years ago, people in the workplace had a much clearer picture of business ethics and having personal integrity within the workplace. Today, given a recent survey just released by PopCap Games, this traditional definition has been lost and probably forever.

Did you know that 10% of your white collar workers waste their work time playing video games anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour each day? For the average American worker being compensated at $30,000 who is playing video games on company time is costing the bottom line anywhere from $375 to $3750.

For years people complained about smoker’s in the office wasting time and affecting other employees’ productivity. Yet, many of these same complainers see nothing wrong with engaging in activities that are not within their job description. Being someone who was educated to have high work ethics, this behavior is frankly astounding not to mention arrogant and entirely disrespectful.

How can any company function when employees believe that they are entitled to playing a video game to take the edge off their day? Of course, I am sure that these employees including top level executives do not believe that they are costing the company anything. Given the culture of the times, the employees’ beliefs that companies have endless bank accounts and what the heck it is only 15 minutes seem to take over good common sense.

Simply speaking, when employees play video games on company time unless of course they are video game programmers, they are demonstrating extremely poor work ethics and a total lack of personal and professional integrity. There are no excuses for not delivering an hour of work for an hour of pay.

With a shrinking workforce and an expanding economy, business owners will continually face this challenge of poor work ethics or what I called attitudes toward performance. Take the time to review your values statements and create the necessary policies to ensure that your employees play those video games on their own time.

Simply speaking, leaders are readers. If you enjoyed this article, you may find the Leadership Audit of interest here.

Visit me, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, The Chief People Officer for people and organizations or want to improve results here to explore everything from how my solutions double results to articles and resources including the Simply Speaking series.

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Tags: business, ethics, training, course, ethical

It occurred to me that I did not get there right away! There was no fumbling with bra straps and underwear on the first date, I did not just “”go-for-it”" right away!

I played it cool!

Just as in business, I knew I had to earn the privilege to share this space with this incredible person, not to show disrespect with a “”wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am, one night stand attitude.”"

I had to demonstrate that I was dedicated, I was here for the long term, before going to the next step.

I believe that if you give people a chance to get to know and respect you, before committing to any relationship, business or otherwise, it is the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

In the long run, you want to give them a reason to give it up for you, (money that is) because you are a professional (not that kind of professional) in what you do and moving forward with you is a wise and profitable decision for them and you.

It has to be win-win!

That is what we are going to discuss here…

Earning the right to having a long term, win-win business relationship.

How do you do it?

Well, first you go on a few “”dates”", get to know each other; ensure there is some synergy between both parties, ensure there will be a mutual benefit in moving forward.

This could be sharing some of your knowledge, seeing if there is some common ground, ensure that you can in fact communicate on the same level. Show this person that you are someone who can trust who you are and understand your “”intentions”"; you are not just here for a quickie!

Maybe you have something they want?

Give them a reason to go on more than one “”date”" with you.

Make an offer they can’t refuse, be willing to expose yourself without the expectation of anything in return, let them see some of “”the goods.”"

If they accept your offer and reciprocate, then you are in business!

The next step is to keep their trust!

This is crucial; make sure you call the next day, stay in touch, get past the initial awkwardness of taking their money from them in exchange for what you have given them, let them know that you are not going anywhere; there is more where that came from and it only gets better over time, as get to know each other better and advance in your relationship.

Finally, always be faithful!

Do not screw around on this person, not even once because if you do the relationship will be over and your name will be out there as the person who cannot be trusted. This way you not only lose the relationship you worked so hard to establish, but you have eliminated a great number of other prospects for the future.

Always remember that the truth, your own judgment of who you are being, is painted on your face, comes through between the words that you speak and in the words that you write and just like the scent of a woman, your partner will always pick up if you have not been true to the relationship and that it could soon be over for you.

I sincerely hope that you have been entertained by what I had to say, but more importantly that you get the message that you want to always be a person that can walk with their head held high because your level of integrity can truly only be judged by you.

So, how about a date? A business date! Come see what I have to offer, maybe it is just what you have been looking for!

Steven Donne is a practical entrepreneur, he believes that making money should be and is simple. Having owned a number of “traditional” business with real overhead and real employees, he switched his focus to the Home Business industry utilizing the Network Marketing model. After failing many times because of his own interference, he has found and developed great success in the Network Marketing arena. Donne knows that systems do in fact work and only recommends programs that will surely produce results.

Donne recommends the Reverse Funnel System, developed by Ty Coughlin:
Visit this site

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Tags: research, ethics, review, business, corporate

“A few days ago I was speaking to a man in prison who was in a most serious situation. He was being accused of something which he said he did not do. Now, many prisoners try to convince people that they are innocent, but this scenario was different and unusual.

Over the years I have always found it to be a most privileged situation to be in – to be allowed into the innermost corners of certain individuals lives. They have to have a degree of trust in you to let you in there in the first place.

I made it very clear when I challenged this man to tell me the truth. I was not involved in the incident in any way whatsoever, but he was telling me a lie there and then, then the next time he came to tell me something no matter how genuine it might be, I would always have that niggling thought that it was all just one big smokescreen and lie.

I have taught this in various classes in school from five year olds upwards. If you tell me a lie today then how will I know to-morrow that you are telling me the truth, when it might very well be the truth?

There are those who think that Chaplains and Pastors will believe whatever is said to them, because they are nice men. We are not called to be nice.

At times, Jesus Christ reacted and responded to particular groups of religious people and it could never be said that He was being nice! He spoke strong challenging tough realistic words on various occasions.

Speaking the truth is vitally important, if we wish to maintain good relationships and keep valued friends.

That is why God has said, “”You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour”".

Being a reliable witness in a court of law is essential, and a witness sticks to the facts and seeks to be accurate regarding what actually happened.

God intends that truth permeates and saturates every part of our lives.

I repeat this because it crucially important and has to be put into practical operation no matter where we are, and no matter what our age. If someone comes up and tells me something, which I later discover to be a pack of lies, then the next time that individual speaks to me, I am wondering if he is telling me the truth, or is this just another tale, and in business such trust, reliability and loyalty is essential.

Almighty God detests lying lips, but He delights in men who are truthful, and some discover that to be true when it is just too late.

That old saying, “”sticks and stones may break my bones; but words can never hurt me”" is just not true.

Words can hurt, inflicting deep painful wounds from which some people take years to recover. It is possible to be healed and recover much more quickly.

Telling the truth involves treating people fairly and graciously. Judgmental half truths and even slight exaggerations can be cruel.

The tongue can ruin reputations, speak lies when under severe pressure, boast to satisfy a man’s ego, talk when silence would be golden, and when reporting matters inaccurately can cause havoc.

God says the tongue can be like a spark setting on fire a great forest.

Lies can cause the guilty to go free or the innocent to suffer.

Lies not only pervert justice but they destroy the integrity of the character speaking maliciously.

Jesus Christ clearly teaches that one day we will be answerable for every careless word we might have uttered.

Sandy Shaw

Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children’s Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary here entitled “”Word from Scotland”" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.

His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.

Sandy Shaw

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Tags: business, ethics, management, reasearch, corporate

With the continuously surfacing scandals in Corporate America, the idea that any form of ethics exists in business is suspect. We are also seeing similar situations within the ranks of government and religious leaders. And, the lack of ethics is not confined to America. It’s global!

By definition, ethics reflect the type of morally permissible standards of conduct a group places upon themselves. It is basically a contract with the society an entity serves. Greed, the desire for power, and blind ambition are some of the factors that have all but eliminated ethical standards. We have lost our conscience. It seems that anything one can get away with to reach their defined pinnacle of success is becoming more and more acceptable.

But the truth of the matter is that a society without rules is a society that is on the brink of chaos and self destruction. Likewise, a society with the wrong kind of rules will ultimately suffer the same fate. Now I’m not sounding the doomsday bell. We still have much residual ethics left in the world to overcome the current trend. But, like a natural resource, our supply is getting lower and we must reverse this downward spiral otherwise a valuable fabric of human society will disappear.

What about you? Do you have your own personal code of ethics that form the core of your decision making process? Allowing a small slip today, without a checks and balance system, can ultimately lead to a major spill. Bad habits start small and can quickly grow into an unethical monster. Without conscience serving as a standard of measurement, ethics disappear.

Once we could say that a strong religious orientation was a good standard to govern our ethical conduct. But today, when religious zealots kill in the name of their god, they taint the idea that religious beliefs always produce ethical behavior. Patriotism was once considered a driver of ethical behavior. In my lifetime, I have witnessed a sharp decline in the loyalty to the American ideals of yesteryear. We now have leaders in America speaking out against these ideals almost to the point of being treasonous. These are scary times.

Call me a sentimentalist or a fool but I believe that eventually good triumphs over evil. The lackluster presence of any kind of ethical standards simply means that the effort to turn the direction of our global society must be increased. There has always been unethical behavior in the world. Apathy and acceptance of behavior blatantly unethical must be replaced with a commitment to return to sound principles of conduct. As a starting point, let me suggest that if we simply all began to follow the mandates of the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, we’d be very much on the path of corrective action.

Start with yourself. Hold “”you”" to high standards and morally sound ethical principals centered on the eleven rules just mentioned. By your example, others will begin to see the soundness of your actions. Your life can affect the life of friends and family. Don’t underestimate the power of one. Make a difference by teaching the world to return conscience to decision making.

The next time you face a particularly difficult decision, try answering these questions:

* Can I share my decision with everyone?

* Is it legal?

* How does the decision make me feel about myself?

* Who does this decision negatively impact?

* Why am I making this particular decision?

* Have I clearly defined the problem requiring a decision to be sure I’m addressing the correct issue?

* Does this decision serve the company or me personally?

* Is the decision based upon facts consistent with fair play?

* Is the decision consistent with organizational values and culture or my own personal system of ethics?

* Is the decision fair and balanced to those it impacts?

The answers to the above list of questions will clearly identify the ethics of a decision relative to your own personal standards. By being very clear on our five to ten core values, we establish the ground rules for running our life. We know when we act contrary or incongruent to our values. Ignoring this feeling usually gets us in trouble. Most understand the difference between right and wrong. They just choose to follow wrong!

Some Final Thoughts on Ethics

Everyone has moral autonomy. We have the power to make individual choices, important to us, as we move through life. Choices are based upon the personal set of values we’ve established as rules for how we will live our life. Most understand that all choices are not necessarily ethical. But most know when such choices are made.

Whatever ethical standards we’ve established for ourselves are with us twenty-four hours a day. There is no different set of business ethics. Our personal ethics come to work with us.

We need to be more keenly aware when we have ethical lapses and continuously strive to make them less frequent. Life is not perfect and we are not perfect. Placing a high moral standard to govern our actions is the right thing to do. The question to answer is, “Do we have the moral courage to do so?”

Billy Arcement, MEd.,-The Leadership Strategist, is a seasoned professional speaker, author, facilitator and coach. Learn more about his services at his website

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Tags: ethics, decision, making, ethical, leaders

Whether it’s the holidays, a birthday, an anniversary, or a retirement, there is often a reason to bring the tradition of gift giving into the office. With these special occasions also comes a slew of concerns. Employees or employers may find that they ask themselves questions concerning the nature of the gift, the message it may send, or what is a reasonable amount to send. While every office is different, asking your self these questions before purchasing a gift will help to ensure your gift is appropriate.

1. Does your office have a gift giving policy? – Many offices have established a policy informing employees how they should handle gift giving. Reading up on your employee handbook or speaking to the Human Resources department in your office is a good way to find out if gift giving is accepted and if it is, what guidelines the company follows. Rules can be as strict as outlawing gift giving all together or they can simply set precautionary rules about what and how gifts can be given.
2. Is your gift appropriate for the office? – It’s not unusual to form bonds with your co workers, but when giving gifts, you will want to steer clear ones that may be to personal and inappropriate. For example, while you and a coworker may feel a particular gag gift is very amusing, you run the risk of insulting the recipient or making other individuals in the office uncomfortable. If you find that your gift prompts you to ask “Is this out of line,” consider searching for something a little less taboo.
3. Will your gift violate any dietary, spiritual, or personal rules the recipient must follow? – While everyone enjoys a basket full of gourmet goodies, not everyone can indulge in the gift. If your boss is on a special diet, the last thing you want to do is give a gift that they can’t enjoy. The same is true when giving wine or spirits. Unless you’re positive your co-worker is a die-hard red wine lover, steer clear of alcoholic gifts. Therefore when giving gifts that consist of food or beverages make it a point to take any diet, heath, religious, or personal restrictions into consideration
4. Can your gift be construed as a bribe or attempt to further your position with the company? – When giving gifts to senior staff members it’s important to keep in mind that it is possible your gift can be seen as a bribe. It is suggested that if you are close to a promotion or if there is a possibility of advancement in your near future, that you steer clear of giving elaborate or unnecessary gifts. Unfortunately, even with the best of intentions you run the risk appearing as though you are “buying your way to the top.”
5. How much should I spend? – Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to set a price limit for gifts. This is particularly true for gift giving reasons other than holidays (Offices that practice gift giving during the holidays often set price limits). As a general rule, individual gifts should rarely exceed thirty-five to forty dollars. If you are interested in purchasing a gift that is more than fifty dollars, consider asking co-workers if they are interested in giving a gift as a group. This will save you money and it can limit any questions about your intentions when giving an expensive gift.

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Tags: ethics, guide, guidelines, study