Business ethics refers to implementing appropriate business policies and practices around controversial subjects. Some issues that come up in a discussion of ethics include corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, social responsibility, and fiduciary responsibilities. There are Laws specific to business ethics, providing a basic guidelines that businesses can follow to gain public approval.

In today’s environment a lot of emphasis is placed by consumers on the environment, social Issues, and corporate responsibility. Business ethics goes beyond just a moral code of what is right and wrong, Business ethics promotes trust between employees, consumers and corporations.

Genera areas of Ethical concern:

• Leadership
• Accountability
• Integrity
• Respect for others
• Honesty
• Respect for laws
• Social and “other” Responsibility
• Transparency.
• Compassion
• Fairness
• Loyalty
• Environmental concern

As a rule companies need to create and put in place a code of conduct/ethics program, guiding principles, self-reporting procedures, and training programs to enforce ethical behavior. Usually there is a compliance officer that oversees the process and who reports outside the regular chain of command, directly to a Board of directors.

A successful Business Ethics program will add Brand recognition and growth to an organization, other benefits include: Increased ability to negotiate, Increased trust in products and services, Customer and employee retention, growth, Attracts better talent and Attracts investors among others.

A good Ethics program will always have the company do what is right

Employee engagement refers to the degree to which employees are invested in,

motivated by and passionate about the work they do and the company for which they work.

Why should we develop engaged employees? simply put, highly engaged

employees do more for your business. Specifically, an engaged workforce positively

impacts the productivity and profitability of an organization, as well as its ability to retain top talent.

Leadership at times confuse employee engagement with employee satisfaction, and

while the two ideas are related — simply put., the difference between the two is that.

...

Satisfied employees are happy at work and engaged employees are happy doing their work.

Engaging employees is a highly effective business strategy, but it’s much easier said than done. While HR may think adding a better benefit package.. these new benefits do more to increase job satisfaction than boost engagement — two related but different concepts.

As I made reference in a previous post, employee engagement is often confused for job satisfaction, engagement has more to do with an individual’s connection to their organization and is motivated and passionate about their work.

How to Develop an Employee Engagement Strategy

As a starting point..,plan to measure “ current” employee engagement before you get started.. One you know how your employees feel it will be easier to set an employee Value Proposition and Strategy.DOWNLOAD NOW

Set Accountabilities…

Know who’s responsible for what before you get started and set up ongoing monitoring……Form an employee engagement committee composed of the same key players and task them with carrying out initiatives for your strategy.

Be open to new approaches to your Strategy….

You won’t find the perfect strategy immediately, so don’t close yourself off to new ideas. Measure Engagement constantly.. you must be able to validate the improvements in in your Key indicators.

Must not forget that Your core values should be the heart of your company culture and clearly explained to every employee from day one. Company core values should explain what truly matters to your team and the ideals that you’ll strive to uphold as you expand.

“Must haves”

Providing employees opportunities to grow their skill set keeps them engaged, and having something to work toward keeps them motivate

Promote from within.

Recognize Top Performers make them feel Valued.

Transparency and accountability at all levels of the organization.

“AMPING” UP communication…..

As we all know communication is Key…Have to make sure all in the organization are aware of what is going on . It is not enough to say what you need to say!.... you got to make sure all in your team are listening to what you are saying..,also that they are understanding your message…Why is your message important. I f there is a place to be spending energy……it is in communicating!!!

A few tips ;

· Be Direct

· Provide Clarity

· Communicate Standards

· Be energetic when communicating with your team/ customers

· Build momentum when communicating your ideas

· Look for understanding

· Look for feed back - Communication is a two way street

· Communicate to build company culture – Spirit - commitment

· Use your communication to Build alignment with your goals

· Use communication to share accomplishments / Data.

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Turn Every Obstacle into an Opportunity

In my life even though I have encountered many roadblocks to achieving some of my goals, I always looked at these obstacles as potential opportunities.

In many cases the obstacles I encountered were items I had failed to think about during the planning process.

Remember that in most instances and rather than starting your project from scratch each time you encounter an obstacle try to incorporate your new found solution into your existing action plan.

After a few years in leadership I developed a simple process to quickly navigate through the problem solving process and in almost every case the plan became stronger and more effective once I was able to incorporate the newly found solutions into the original plan.

Here are a short but very effective process the helped me to turn problems into opportunities;

1.Divide the perceived problem or obstacles into smaller pieces., make sure you use the 5 why process or root cause analysis to get to the root cause of the problem. Once simplified it is easier to devise a solution to incorporate into your plan.

2. Once you come up with a strong solution to the problem be quick to incorporate the new solution into your plan …we will call that an improvement into your process

3. Be quick to action with the implementation.

4. Continue to review and make changes to the action plan as necessary.

Remember that change is the only constant in the Planning process….

Over the past few Months I’ve had a few people ask why is it so hard to keep it all in check and stay motivated…

My first thought is to remind all that weather they are managing their own operations or someone else’s, the mind set they must develop is to always manage and Lead the business as if it was your own... it is that entrepreneurial spirit that adds resilience and the ability to keep things fresh and on track……

“It has to hurt when things are not done right”. When recipes and presentation are not being followed, costs are out of control, morale is low, productivity is not there.., Sales are below projections…..you need to investigate, find out the reasons, make a mitigating plan and execute quickly…

Embody your idea of the ultimate team player !!

A team player is someone who prioritizes the goals of the team rather than just their interests. Be an example to those around you, When you embody your idea of a good team player others will want to emulate you attitude an performance.

Following are a few characteristics of the ideal Team Player;

*Good listener - A team player listens intentionally.

• · Adaptable - Team players can fill whatever role
• · Aware of others - Knowing how others team might contribute to the team
• Reliable - Be there / Be present
• · Responsible -take full responsibility for their share of the workload.
• · Outgoing - using their outgoing personalities to build trust with their peers.
• · Open-minded: Being willing to understand new perspectives
• · Active problem solver - Taking the initiative
• Positive - Keeping a positive outlook
• · Accountable - Taking responsibility
• · Professional - Dressing, speaking and acting professionally
• · Enjoy learning - Continuing to learn
• · Motivated - Remaining motivated and persuading others to do the same
• · Empathetic – Be Understanding of others
• · Resourceful - Effectively contributing to the team
• · Direct – Be willing to effective give and receive feedback

Remember these are just a few characteristics of an engaged team player….it is very important for a Leader to be what you preach and walk the talk !!

Thanks for listening

Check for the next podcast on our series, Managing with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Visit our site Thefoodie-guy.com for much more content.

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