How to be “good,” in business and in life

Hello again. This is Don Mayer, professor of business ethics and legal studies at the University of Denver. This is lecture 2, How to Be Good in Business and in Life.

We use the word "good" a lot. When we say Jules is a good person, is it just the same as saying Jules is good at business? No, it's likely we used "good" in a moral sense in the first statement, but mean a different sense of good when we say Jules is good at business. If you're listening to this, you're probably just aiming to be good at business, but someone has said you really should listen to these lectures about business ethics. But can't you be good at business and care nothing at all about business ethics? After all, nice people finish last. You have to look out for number one. If your aim is to become a CEO, maybe like Jack Welch, the celebrated CEO of General Electric, you need to be tough, ruthless, efficient and visionary. Not necessarily qualities we associate with good people or ethical people. If you were to use a search engine for "qualities of a great CEO," you're likely to find things like extremely driven, good communicator, and good at managing time. You're also likely to find characteristics like data driven, ambitious or efficient. You might see some lists that will include aspects of good ethical character. Caring for your people, treating them fairly, having some humility, and other words or phrases that sound more like ethical qualities. Speaking of humility, if you're only and always thinking of yourself, you can't be thinking productively or effectively about your team or your company. As Bob Vanourek, author of Triple Crown Leadership, puts it, "Your ego is not your amigo." Why is that? Ethics can only take root when you move from focusing on your own desire to focusing on and helping others. When you do that on a consistent basis, your reputation as an ethical person can only grow. But first, let's dig a little deeper into the question of values, and specifically the ethical values that underpin what we mean by good leadership. To do this, we will need to separate ethical versus non-ethical values for people in business. A business manager could be data-driven, efficient and visionary, but still be an uncaring, disrespectful and unfair boss. Very few people would describe such a manager as a good leader. But what values would a good leader practice on a consistent basis? By the way, all of us are potential leaders in our teams and our work groups, even without having a formal title of manager or leader. Most management consultants insist that not all managers are actually leaders. As we often hear, "That person is just a manager, not a leader." Values-based leaders have a way of rising to the top and staying there.