“We have little power to choose what happens, but we have complete power over how we respond.”
– Ariana Huffington, Thrive
Good character feels right
Having good character simply feels right. You will sense when you encounter it in an organisation or an individual. On the flip side, you will want to run away if you experience its polar opposite being allowed to run rife.
The fruit of “good character” in the organisational context includes: Sincerely serving colleagues, customers and suppliers. Ethical leadership. Showing integrity while performing tasks. It is reflected in something as “small” as looking after company resources.
- Personally: Do you take stationary home? Is that stealing? Do you habitually leave 10 minutes earlier, or come late?
- Organisationally: Do we commit to the promises we make our customers? Do we remunerate our employees fairly, or do we sweat our assets to get more work for less pay?
Good character is tested during turbulent times.
Will the company turn a blind eye when confronted with situations that require neglecting good principles for the sake of making money or closing a deal?
It is then when we see who stands firm in their values, good principles, and beliefs.
The benefits of excellent character
No one or no business is perfect. Building character is a lifelong process.
Benefits of excellent organisational character include: Attracting better leaders and talent, making better decisions, having happy and engaged employees who will take less energy to manage, but instead will add energy to the business.
Customers will sense this. Strategic partnerships will be formed. The business will also attract suppliers that share the same character.
Other intrinsic benefits include: Being responsible stewards, and understanding why the organisation exists, what it contributes towards, and is part of.
Making a sizeable profit is great, and a responsibility towards shareholders. How you make that profit, and what you do with it (how you spend it), is what defines “who” the organisation is, reflecting its character.
Obstacles to excellent organisational character
Warren Buffet said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
I want to be able to say that I display great character all the time, but I can’t. I wrestle with it, and I am tested in various areas daily. But I try. I review my actions and motives through discussions with individuals, in internal meetings, and in conversations with clients. I often need to face the facts that in some areas I may have acted inappropriately. This is not about work only, but about life, which makes it a weightier responsibility. Being confronted with the standards of having good character is sometimes the biggest obstacle you face.
From an HR viewpoint organisations will face obstacles in various areas: Ensuring that goals are reasonable. Ensuring that employees and managers act with integrity, and are held accountable for their actions. Also, recruiting the correct fit within the job and culture and not just recruiting the quickest available candidate who might actually not fit the culture profile.
When we see re-occurring patterns of moral “red flags” we should act accordingly to protect our business from the harmful repercussions of having “a little leaven ruin the whole lump”. Flags like unfaithfulness, malicious jealousy, destructive selfish ambitions, dissensions, and outbursts of rage, sabotaging envy, and addictions.
Setting the boundaries and letting employees and managers know through leaderships’ example what it means to act with good character brings security, and will contribute to a happy and productive workforce.
Performance management contributes to excellent organisational character
Sometimes performance management is inappropriately used by managers as merely a tool to discipline, or just done as a “box-ticking” exercise. This is not the approach we recommend.
The Imenent approach is geared towards creating a culture where the employee and manager can honestly dialogue about the real progress of a function or task. The majority of empowered employees are generally able to fulfill well-defined functions. It is when things go wrong that a manager needs to be made aware of it quickly so that they can work together as a team to understand what happened, and what the solution is.
Our system is a voice for both the employee and the manager, supporting both parties with tools and advise.
We believe that this open relational approach to performance management is an enabler of great organisational character.
To conclude with another Ariana Huffington quote: “It all starts with setting the expectations that make it clear that no matter how much hardship we encounter – how much pain and loss, dishonesty, ingratitude, unfairness, and jealousy – we can still choose peace and imperturbability.”
Always seek to do good.
