A Final Word on Integrity
In otherwise ethical situations, you might be asked to put your ethics on hold momentarily. Don’t do it. Wrong choices would include anything that is immoral, illegal or even remotely connected to activities that are. You know what they are.
If it is a manager or your boss making such a request, report the indiscretion to human resources immediately. Why? The minute you don’t play, you are blacklisted. Reporting the infraction will protect you, once recorded. Also, keep accurate notes of the situation. Consider Enron and their infamous accounting firm. That situation could have ended before it began had more ethical people been willing to speak up.
Not snitching may be a sign of coolness in fifth grade, but in corporate America, your first loyalty should be to the company that signs your checks and puts food on your family’s table.
Some businesses breed bad behavior by the sheer nature of the business. I hail from the brokerage sales and investment industry, where pressure is frequently placed on ethics, and aggressive salesmanship is too often the rule. Imagine hearing that you must either generate a certain amount of revenue through commissions earned by investing someone’s life savings or you are out of a job.
This really does happen, but fortunately there are many more good than bad apples. Ideally, the advisor learns to market to and find clients that are enthusiastically interested in investment products and services. The majority conduct their business in this appropriate manner.
But what of the advisor with a family to feed, who has had a bad month through no particular fault of his own and hears a dire warning due to low production, alluded to above? What will he do when someone who is not suitable to take an investment risk sits down at his desk with cash? Is he pushed beyond his integrity to perform?
If this advisor has established integrity and always takes the high road, he may be out of a job. As difficult as it might be to find another job, it would be far easier than breaking the law and having something come back to haunt him years later.
For example, before I was a manager, I was a financial advisor and faced a situation that caused me to leave several months’ salary on the table. A client was on the brink of purchasing almost a million dollars worth of a certain investment, something he requested, based on his own research. At the midnight hour, just before we entered the trade, he asked what his “cut,” or rebate, was.
I was new and green and an idealistic people pleaser. I thought there must be a way to accommodate him; after all, we would make a very good fee on this transaction, and it was his selection! Regardless, my boss made it clear that rebating was a serious violation and that the best we could do was offer to discount future commissions on trades, something that was an acceptable practice.
This didn’t fly with Mr. Dealmaker, and he proceeded to do business with another firm in the area. Two months later, we witnessed the market crash of 1987. I heard through the grapevine that Mr. Dealmaker had taken major losses and took the broker with whom he wound up doing business to arbitration, saying that he had only invested with that broker because—are you ready?—the broker bribed him with a refund of his commissions.
That broker is out of the business now. I thank my manager at the time, Paul Robinson, for his wisdom and sage guidance, because this industry has been the work I have loved for almost twenty years.
Putting It All Together
You obviously desire to become a leader or you wouldn’t be reading this book.
I hope you realize by now that although some leaders may be born to lead, others are developed along life’s path.
Only you can reinvent yourself to inspire and motivate. When you do so, you will reap the benefits as well. It is within you to command respect and admiration rather than fear and disdain. You can become a respected leader, one that shepherds her employees to their highest potential.
And while most of what you need is within, the actual process requires you to look outside and to learn about each and every person that relies on you as his or her manager. It isn’t about you alone; it is about the group as a whole. Your management style must become chameleon-like, ever changing. Rather than expecting everyone to conform to your wishes and demands, no matter how worthy, try instead to adapt to the personalities and styles of the people you are managing.
Remember this acronym when you need a leadership tune-up:
L - Listening
E - Ethics
A - Accountability
D - Dedication to mission, team and company
E - Enthusiasm
R - Recognition
S - Sensitivity
H - Humor
I - Integrity
P - Progress toward goals
“Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God.”
Leo Buscaglia
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Author's note: An 20-year veteran of the securities industry, advisor coach Patti Branco is a securities industry consultant, and founder of Patti Branco Management Solutions. And can be reached at 903-451-9800. 
