Too often I’ve seen employees in a position of authority talk the talk and not walk the talk; they say one thing and then do another.  After all, in the minds of so many, it’s the perception that counts and the motto “everybody does it” is prevalent.  Companies say the right things with respect to integrity and ethics; have policies and procedures in place to support the same; and also have hotlines available to catch offenders whose actions would tarnish the company’s reputation.  However, companies depend on people to uphold and execute those policies and procedures.  Most, I have found, are working for their next promotion and not for the benefit of the company’s clients or the company.  The following words may be too strong, however, this has been my experience over a couple of decades.  Most in the corporate fortune 500 world that I have come across, have low integrity.  This is of course my opinion.  But, giving the appearance of doing what’s right when everyone is looking and then doing something else in the shadows where other’s cannot see is not integrity.  It’s hypocrisy! Maybe I’m jaded.  There must be some upstanding (in my mind) companies out there.  Well, I may have found two just recently.  One I am still watching to see if they’re for real, the other seems legit right now.  This Ottawa search engine optimization firm seems to be striving towards operating with ethics and integrity.  Bravo for them!

Be a Leader

It is a lonely feeling when you looking around and everyone, it seems, have lost their moral compass. I am however, optimistically hopeful!  There must be pockets of greatness out there.  Believe me, I understand the mentality.  Here’s one scenario I can describe that you are familiar with I am sure; I’ll provide another later.  Imagine an Olympic athlete that’s drug free.  That athlete only has a finite time to make his/her dream of winning Olympic gold before he/she has to retire; too old.  Now, your country wants winners and puts pressure on you to win otherwise there will be funding cuts.  And, there’s your competition (it only takes one) that is using performance-enhancing drugs; not getting caught; winning; and getting the glory and the dollars.  Many will say “if you can’t beat them, then join them!”.  Then the problem only gets worse and it becomes playing the “game” so as not to get caught and hopefully win; rationalized by the level playing field mentality.  After a while you’ll believe all the “crap” you’ve told yourself to be true.

We tend to let the cheaters give use direction; bend to the difficult people.  Most of us know right from wrong.  But, when our wellbeing (scenario two: losing a promotion, losing our salary, not being able to travel…) is in jeopardy we start imagining just how hard it would be to go without, to start over, to sacrifice, and gravitate to doing what might be out rightly wrong, or unethical just to keep what we have or to get more.  We rationalize to make ourselves feel better.  A common rationalization is to say “I’m doing this for my family or my kids.”.   After all, it’s all about appearances; or so we tell ourselves.  The sense tends to be that everyone else is doing it and if I don’t then I’m going to fall behind.  What about morals, integrity and such?  That’s only of use when times are good it seems.

I applaud the person that sticks by his/her morals, integrity, ethics and the like in good times and bad and especially when the spotlight is not on him/her.  That’s a person I would trust and with whom I would do business.  That person is leading and not following the rest!  Which type of company would you prefer to do business with?  Well, that’s an individual choice.  We have the choice to be a creator/implementer of the solution or a contributor to the problem.  I know where I stand.  Think about where you stand.  If you’re proud of your choice you will not want to declare it from the shadows.  You will be proud to declare it out loud for everyone to hear and see!

I hope the people at Custom-Fit SEO in Ottawa, On, live up to the words they’ve written on their website…continually!  I’d like to see them really succeed.  The ones who do not succumb to the dark side should always win!