The Ethical Optimist

A new Associated Press poll shows that 55 percent of those surveyed consider honesty, integrity and other values of character the most important qualities they look for in a presidential candidate.

Apparently, a candidate’s stand on issues, their experience or intelligence plays to a lesser degree.

You know, it’s not all that different in my little corner of the world.  Ask most people within a profession who they most like to work with, and the answer is usually, “someone I trust.”

It’s one of the reasons I founded my agency as one that is ethically focused. I found over the years, that most of my business came via referrals from people who “trusted” me to be honest with them both in terms of my counsel and how I ran my business.

These are usually my best clients because they are honest with me in turn, and we have a great working relationship.

Now and again, I come across a prospect that doesn’t quite like my approach …they prefer having an agency that tells them what they want to hear.  In fact, I just pitched a client that didn’t quite like my open approach…”here’s your hat, what’s your hurry,” is the best way to describe how our meeting ended.

Heading home in the car that day, I went over what I could have said to get the business.  Could I have been more diplomatic? Could I have tried to win the business and fix the issue later? After conferring with a few colleagues I trust, I realized that I’ll never be less than myself and, at the end of the day, this wasn’t the type of client that would have worked for us.

Ethical leadership is never an easy road…I know first hand that it doesn’t always lead to instant riches.  That said, some of us find a different type of wealth in the “road less traveled.”