Establishing Your Ethical Code

Establishing an ethical code helps you behave in a manner that is consistent with the type of leader you want to be.

As a leader, it’s important to set guidelines. We’ve all made bad decisions at some point. Wouldn’t it be great to have something that can prevent us from making a bad decision before it actually happens? So a leadership maxim designed to say, “Here are my rules of the road. Here are the things that are non-negotiable for me and decisions I won’t make outside of this set of boundaries.”

I’ve had two maxims over the years. The first, “It’s hard to shave if you can’t look yourself in the mirror.” Now, with this goatee, I have to look in the mirror every single day, but the way this maxim reminds me to make good decisions is, I need to be okay with the guy that’s looking back at me in the mirror every single morning. There have been times where I had two choices, and I could easily logic my way into making a wrong one. This maxim has made me pause for a second and say, “How are you going to feel about this tomorrow?” And the answer was not so great, so I made the more difficult choice.

Now, in terms of emotional resonance, that maxim resonated for me for a while, but ultimately, I changed my maxim to, “What would Nana say?” Nana was my grandmother, and I’m the firstborn grandson in an Italian family, so Nana and I had a very special relationship. I sit there and I think about, well, what would my Nana say if she saw me doing what I’m doing right now? She would either be really proud of me and happy with it or she’d start saying things to me that I might not be so comfortable with.

I’ve applied this maxim in a lot of situations. I was in a situation shortly after Nana passed away, three days later, and I was going to give this presentation on leadership maxims at my largest, most important client. As I walked into the hotel that night, I said, “Oh my gosh, I can’t put that slide up because it has a picture of Nana on it. I’ll be in front of 300 people, and I might start crying.” I stopped and I said, “Well, what would Nana say?” Nana would say, “Michael, put the slide up. Show people what vulnerability looks like. Show them what emotional resonance can really do.” I followed the guidance, and it was an uncomfortable moment, but afterwards, something incredible happened. People came up to me and they said, “I want to thank you for sharing your personal story and really showing me what it means to make yourself vulnerable.” So that maxim has served me very well and helped me make difficult decisions.

As you think about your guidelines as a leader, what are your non-negotiables? What are the things that have prevented you from making bad decisions? It’s important that you write this maxim during a time of calm because when the pressure is on, that’s when the maxim is really important. When that pressure is on, we can make bad decisions as leaders. This maxim will serve as that guardrail that stops you when you’re about to cross over that line. It will help you make a decision that’s consistent with the type of leader that you want to be.

Think about those situations where perhaps you made a bad decision, or you made a great decision, and what led you to do that. What are the types of things that will prevent you from making bad decisions in the future and will help you behave in a manner that’s consistent with the leader that you want your team to see you as? As you think about that situation and break it down to a very pithy, simple rule that will trigger that memory, that’s going to be your leadership maxim for setting your own personal guidelines.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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