Chapter 12
Ethics and protocols for career development
‘In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.'
Mahatma Gandhi
In chapter 1 I discuss the importance of building and nurturing trust to effective career conversations and indeed to leadership. This chapter outlines some of the key ethical principles and protocols for leaders aiming to build and maintain this trust and to create a safe and respectful environment for employees.
Ethics play a critical role in every aspect of organisational life, but never more so than when discussing, guiding and nurturing the individual careers of those you lead. While ethical considerations provide a blueprint for appropriate behaviour, no list can be exhaustive enough to cover all possible scenarios or eventualities.
In my experience, sometimes there is no one rule or clear answer to an ethical dilemma. Wise judgement is needed to produce the best outcome. Recognising that such a dilemma exists is the critical prerequisite to dealing effectively and appropriately with it. Ethics are grounded in values. Whenever I have struggled to find the best way forward, I have gone back to my values and more often than not found my answer there!
Confidentiality is critical
Respecting confidentiality is critical. Employees need to be sure that their leader will create a safe environment for them, and this includes treating any information shared as confidential. This does not mean leaders should be plundering their dark secrets — quite the contrary — but employees need to be confident that they can discuss anything they feel will help their career without their being judged and any confidences being shared with others without their approval.
Leaders may at times be tempted to seek resolution by discussing what has been shared with others in the organisation. This temptation must be resisted at all costs, except in the unlikely event that it might involve self-harm or harm to others, in which case the appropriate professional should be informed immediately. If you feel it would be helpful to share with a third party anything that your employee has told you, check for alignment and seek the employee's express approval before doing so. Then, and only then, can this be done.
A cautionary word on therapy
Leaders should be cautious not to stray into or practise any form of therapy. If you suspect your employee is suffering from depression, or some other mental, physical or social condition, then refer them to the firm's Employee Assistance Program (EAP), if you have one, or to the relevant health professional, as discussed in chapter 8. You may need to actively encourage your employee to take this step, but you should then leave it to them to act on your advice. Knowing how and when to do this is often a source of anxiety for leaders. Unfortunately, there's no rule book to follow here. Only be sure not to engage in anything that even approximates therapy!
Logistics
Leaders should always keep the logistics in mind, including the physical environment where they hold career conversations. Following are some key do's and don'ts:
- Don't sit behind your desk if the discussion is held in your office; come around the other side so you can be on the same level as your employee.
- Don't hold the meetings in ‘fish bowl' style office or meeting room, where the exchange is fully visible to others in the office. A fish bowl meeting may embarrass your employee, stifle any plain speaking or distract from your career conversation.
- Do have water and tissues ready in case they're needed.
- Do switch off phones or turn them to silent, and make sure the meeting is not disturbed, other than in an emergency.
- Do set a defined time frame for the career discussion. An hour to an hour and a half is optimal in my experience.
- Do avoid rescheduling career discussion meetings. Constant rescheduling sends the message to your employee that these sessions are not important to you as their leader.
- Do avoid scheduling other meetings immediately before or after, in case your discussion needs longer than anticipated. Sometimes breaking off the discussion at the wrong point can be counterproductive, leaving your employee hanging and unnecessarily anxious.
- Do take notes, but ask permission from your employee to do so. Let them know your purpose in taking notes, and that they will be safely stored and can be viewed by them at any time.
Laura and Lisa's career story
Laura, a senior project manager and team leader of a major technical systems upgrade project for a large company, found herself in a tricky ethical leadership dilemma. Lisa, a key project team member with highly specialised and hard-to-find technical knowledge and a close personal friend of Laura's, was going through a difficult time in her private life.
Lisa was facing the convergence of several personal challenges. While she tried to keep her personal challenges from her colleagues, and in particular from her friend and boss Laura, her situation had reached a crisis point, and she was finding it increasingly difficult to hide the negative impacts on her work performance from the team.
Laura and her colleagues noticed that Lisa's work quality was dropping off and she was missing key project deadlines and milestones. The other team members felt that Laura was covering for Lisa because they were friends, and they weren't happy about it. While they were concerned for Lisa's wellbeing, they were also annoyed with her for potentially undermining their individual performances and the project's overall success.
Laura became very worried for Lisa, both as her friend and as her manager. Lisa had not shared any of her troubling personal circumstances with Laura or anyone else at work. This also concerned Laura, who was mystified and a little hurt that Lisa hadn't confided in her about what was going on. But she chose to respect Lisa's privacy and to wait for her to share it with her when she was ready.
Finally, after coming under pressure from every direction, Laura decided she could wait no longer to confront Lisa. Laura scheduled a meeting with Lisa for later that morning. In the meeting Lisa opened up and confidentially told her story.
Lisa felt bad about her own circumstances but also bad about the impact this had on the project and on Laura personally. So she told her all about her personal troubles, which were a combination of health and partnership issues. As Lisa's story unfolded Laura was shocked by her revelations and concerned for her wellbeing. Using solution-focused language, she asked Lisa how she had found the resilience to keep going and generally coping so well in the circumstances. Lisa found strength in Laura's empathy and felt as though a load had been lifted off her shoulders already simply from sharing her story with her.
Laura could see what this interaction would mean for Lisa's work on the project and instinctively knew what the next steps should be. She offered Lisa the services of the company's Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and encouraged her to use it, which Lisa assured her she would do straight away. Laura also offered her extended leave with full pay so she could concentrate on dealing with her private issues. Moreover, she promised to hold Lisa's job for her until she returned. Lisa jumped at the offer.
Having suspected that something of the kind might be at play, Laura had already been quietly ‘feeling out' a former colleague with similar technical skills to Lisa on taking up a contract role to fill in for Lisa until her return.
The great news was the contract offer was accepted. Finally things were starting to fall into place, and for the first time in weeks Laura felt that the project would soon be back on track.
Her dilemma now, though, was what she could tell the project steering committee, her team and the HR director about the changes and actions taken without breaching Lisa's confidentiality. Laura thought long and hard about this. Others would demand an explanation for what had happened, yet she knew that she couldn't under any circumstances compromise Lisa's confidentiality. With Lisa's permission, Laura decided to be transparent about what Lisa would be doing moving forward, without misrepresenting Lisa's predicament but without sharing any of the confidential aspects. This was critical not only to Lisa but also to Laura's colleagues.
The outcome was that Lisa engaged with the company's EAP service, which she found extremely helpful, and took six weeks off work to recover and resolve her personal issues. The contractor who stepped into Lisa's role did an excellent job, so much so that Laura extended his contract to assist Lisa after she returned to help her settle back in.
Laura took some time out to reflect on all that had happened. She felt happy about some aspects of the process and wondered what she could have done better. She was satisfied with her handling of the ethical issues but came to the conclusion that she might have found a way to intervene earlier in the process. She also thought she might have shared the responsibility by asking for help from her manager or HR without comprising Lisa's confidentiality, rather than taking all the weight on her own shoulders.
With her problems now mostly sorted, Lisa returned to work refreshed and with a renewed enthusiasm for the job she loved, and her work performance was back to her usual exemplary standard. Her return was welcomed and celebrated by the project team, especially Laura! The project was now back on track and hitting all its milestones, and the team was powering through the work as never before.
Laura's careful and thoughtful handling of the ethical issues had a welcome and surprisingly beneficial impact on the project, the team, Laura's leadership standing in the company and her professional development, along with her friendship with Lisa.
Key learnings
Sometimes ethical or other issues turn out to be not as hard to deal with when we apply basic principles of ethical behaviour (mainly confidentiality in this career story) in our leadership approach.
Ethical issues present in many shades of grey, which means it's not always easy to see the right course of action to take. My advice is to draw on your values for guidance, seek input from trusted advisers where this doesn't compromise confidentiality or other ethical considerations, and carefully consider your timing. In following your values, don't be afraid to stand alone in your decisions and actions.
It's not always easy to get the timing right when dealing with ethical issues. Jumping in too soon can be just as bad as procrastinating. In my experience, leaving issues to fester can be really problematic. In the end, leaders must exercise their best judgement and follow their instincts.
It can be very easy to rush to judgement when you don't know all the facts of a matter. Things may not always be what they seem. Leaders can't always share confidential information for ethical reasons, yet this discretion can reflect poorly on them. It's also critical to let your values guide you on when you need to stand firm. In my experience this leadership approach is nearly always recognised, respected and rewarded in time. Leaders must consider how, when and where they act.
Key learnings (cont'd)
If you feel that sharing any part of your employee's story might benefit them and/or the organisation, then always discuss this with them and seek their permission.
Reflect, reflect and reflect some more. Afterwards take some time, as Laura did, to consider what went well and also what might have been done better.