What's Your Line?

It's almost October and for those of us in the training biz, that means busy season. For me, I'm excited to be back in the classroom on a regular basis. One of the classes I'm most looking forward to teaching is on Leadership and Ethics. Every time I teach this topic, I find myself examining my own leadership style and especially, my personal ethics. One resource that consistently challenges me comes from the book entitled The Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for those who will Shape the Future. I bought this book specifically because of the great questions it asks about integrity. Here's an example:

What is your greatest temptation? Who have you told?

As you think about where you are professionally versus where you want to be , what, or who stands in your way?

In light of those obstacles, what are the shortcuts you will most likely be tempted to take?

What do you want to be remembered for?

What's your plan?

Great questions to ask ourselves. From personal experience, it's so easy to be strong in your convictions when in a classroom or when things are going well. It is during times of crisis that our resolve to maintain our values is challenged. That's when it is so tempting to take the shortcut just to make things easier. But in my experience, once you step over that line, it is hard to go back. Those little shortcuts can turn into full-scale ethics violations. So I ask, what's your line and what would it take for you to cross it? Knowing where your line is makes it that much easier to stay on the right side of it.