Stand up for your values

✍ Scribed by Bowen H. “Buzz” McCoy

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Weight: 141 KB
• Volume: 2007
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1087-8149
• DOI: 10.1002/ltl.236

✦ Synopsis

E

very day, unexpected events require us to make split-second decisions that have no easy answers, and that can have long-term consequences for our personal lives, for our organizations, and for our professions. Usually, we have no way of knowing what the costs of our decisions will be until it is too late. There is always a tension between what we will adapt to and what we feel we must resist, especially when what we are resisting is power and pressure. How we live into that tension makes all the difference. Good leaders stand up for their values when faced with tough decisions. But what does it take to stand up for your values? How do you do it without becoming the "house nag"? These questions aren't easy. After twenty years as a partner at Morgan Stanley, I learned through experience that it is not necessary to compromise your integrity to succeed in corporate life. Here are a few guiding principles that I hope will steer anyone toward good decisions when facing ethical dilemmas large and small in the workplace.