Sometimes the line between what is ethical and what is not becomes slightly blurred. While there are certainly enough unethical managers and leaders in the world’s workplace, there is no reason for you to be amongst their masses.

Sadly, sometimes it is difficult to determine if what you are feeling is unethical or simply complicated. There is, fortunately, a simple test you can apply to yourself, as outlined by the UK Institute of Business Ethics, to determine if the decision you are about to make is truely ethical.

You must simply ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Would I be proud to share my decision with the public at large (excluding no one)?
2. Are an aspects of my decision potentially harmful and, if so, are they avoidable?
3. Would everyone involved, even far reaching stakeholders, consider my decision to be fair?

If you can’t answer these questions honestly (with YES answers) then you need to seriously take a step back and reconsider the actions you’re about to take. If you’re having trouble, go and find a neutral party (someone who doesn’t feel obligated to you in any way) and ask for impartial advice.

Don’t let anyone force you into beleiving that something unethical is anything but and don’t allow yourself to become blinded by the feelings of importance you may have placed upon yourself because of your position, either. As a good leader it’ll be your job, when faced with an unethical decision, to find the ethical solution.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Courses

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

I thought we’d end the week with a little exercise – perhaps one of the most thought provoking yet.

Imagine that you work for a company that, for whatever reason, had a workforce that consisted primarily of white males. Throughout the years you have managed to change the face of the workforce and the company now has a significant number of female, African American, Asian, and Hispanic workers.

Your organisation is experiencing severe financial difficulties and you will need to lay off about 1/3 of your 1,000 member workforce. If your plan works you will be able to hire them all back in approximately 6-9 months.

What will you do in order to:

• Choose which employees to lay off while not changing the diversity you’ve worked to hard to create?
• Communicate the decision to lay off a significant number of employees to the rest of the team? and
• Make sure your team understands the change is temporary in nature?

It’s a tall order, for sure. How will you handle the decision making process?

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Courses

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Last week, when we began discussing the various components of the decision making process, I mentioned that one of the attributes a manager needed to have when making decisions was tunnel vision (or, really, a lack thereof).

Think of it this way – a tunnel is very narrow. When you’re in a tunnel you have very few options – either back up or move forward to find the nearest exit. Decision making, when done with tunnel vision, is very similar. Managers with tunnel vision find that they have very few alternatives to choose from when it’s time to make the final decision.

Why would a manager have tunnel vision? He might be biased towards or against a situation. He may also have a limited frame of reference, or experience, from which to draw from. He may be completely unfamiliar with the situation to begin with, making it difficult for him to even think of different alternatives.

Do you have tunnel vision? If so, what will you do to change the way you see things?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Courses

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

One of the best decision making skills you can acquire is the ability to properly time your actions. The fact that you have a dozen different decisions to make shouldn’t cause you to rush them. Even the best decision can become an utter failure if timed incorrectly.

Imagine for a moment that you are the owner of a huge chain of coffee shoppes. As your chain grows in popularity, a myriad of small coffee shoppes are popping up, hoping to compete with you. You know that this will continue to happen but your chain has a very strong brand. In response to the competition, you decide to open 200 additional stores around the country and begin focusing on opening stores in other countries as well. Before you know it, you’ve beaten your competition to the punch and are now situated strongly in almost every area your competition might want to open a store.

Of course, you probably aren’t responsible for determining when to open a huge chain of stores but you’ll have similarly important situations. Making properly-timed decisions isn’t rocket science. As a matter of fact, if you put the decision making skills you already have to work you’ll find that determining when to release your best decisions isn’t as tough as you thought it might be.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

You’ve probably heard the phrase “when it rains, it pours” before. Unfortunately, when it comes to making decisions it’s usually feast or famine. You either have nothing to do or you’re faced with a dozen important decision at the same time.

It’s important to prioritise when it seems like you have a myriad of decisions to make all at once. You have a few choices when it comes to the order in which you’ll make your decisions.

• You might prioritise the decisions based on which will have the greater outcome on your overall goals;
• You might prioritise based on how you think your own manager might respond;
• You might decide to prioritise your decisions based on your own likes and dislikes.

In most cases it won’t matter how you prioritise your tasks as long as you get them done. Some decisions are more difficult to make and, sadly, that fact will lead some managers to procrastinate – an ineffective move that won’t help the department or organisation as a whole. Make your toughest decisions first and the rest will be a breeze.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”