by Pamela Meyer
Do performance reviews include integrity evaluations?
Are 360-degree performance assessments a regular part of the employee review process, and do they include questions about a person’s ethical behavior?
By what means and how often are employees informed of company policies?
Are employees clearly informed of what is and is not permissible to include in personal e-mail?
What are the rules regarding downloading third-party software?
What preventative measures are in place to help employees avoid computer viruses and Trojan horse programs?
Who is responsible for monitoring discussion boards and blogs for postings about the company? Are employees aware of what they can and cannot discuss?
How is employee privacy protected, and what steps are in place to ensure that employee information isn’t provided to anyone who asks for it?
Are escorts required to accompany outside vendors, such as copy machine service people or sales representatives, so they cannot roam the building once they are allowed in?
How is loyalty to the company rewarded?
How high is morale?
Is there particular tension between some employees or departments?
Are managers aware when members of their team are coping with stress outside of the office, such as divorce or debt, and are they alert to how such stress might affect employee performance? Do they make themselves available to offer support should the employee decide to confide in them?
Do employees feel invested in the company and the brand?
Do employees feel the company is loyal to them?11
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LOYALTY: THE TWO-WAY STREET
You cannot demand integrity or ethical behavior from employees unless your organization demonstrates those same qualities. You won’t get cooperation by simply writing a more explicit mission statement. That’s certainly a good place to start, but the effect will be negligible unless you implement strategies to ensure that everyone who works with you embraces the goals and values your mission statement articulates.
But how? Part of an auditor’s job is to recommend the best ways to bring all of your employees in line with your vision, and to suggest structural changes that will support your efforts. For example, some executives have been especially frustrated by their youngest employees—those born in the 1980s, commonly called the Millennials or Generation Y. This group often resists identifying with any brand other than their own, which many leaders believe makes it difficult to inculcate them with a sense of loyalty to a company or an organization. For example, marketing manager Jim Miller may be more concerned about the “Jim Miller” brand, posting throughout the day on his blog, than about his company’s Southport Sodas soft drink brand he was hired to promote.
Notorious for contributing to high turnover rates, the Millennial generation is a demographic whose trust employers must find a way to earn. One way an auditor might suggest combating a Millennial’s personal isolationism would be to encourage managers to help each team member strategize a medium-term career development plan. Given a clear road map to success within the company, employees will have a reason to see the company as more than just a stepping-stone to the next higher paycheck. The more invested they are in the organization, the more likely they will be to take it personally when someone on their team acts unethically. Believing that what reflects badly on the organization reflects badly on them, they will take necessary steps to report or prevent such behavior from occurring again.
Similarly, after evaluating Eric Rayman’s firm, an auditor might have pointed out that the secretaries’ pay scale could be more competitive, and that the number of years of service administrative assistants had to work before being promoted seemed above industry average. Improving work conditions for secretaries would likely have improved morale and increased employee loyalty, significantly diminishing the likelihood of a reoccurrence of fraud. In addition, a simple procedural shift could have eliminated the possibility of altering timesheets altogether—all Rayman would have had to do was keep the original signed timesheets and ask his assistant to fax them in.
Ultimately, it’s at the human level where you will see the most significant improvements. Those employees who can’t accept a more rigorously honest environment will leave, and those who remain will take pride in the initiative and identify closely with your brand.
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Phase 2: Corporate Incentive Structure Mapping
The second phase of the deception audit targets those organizational structures and management practices that can inadvertently create easy paths to deceit. A relentless emphasis on beating the competition, heavy promotion of an unreliable product, or sticking with a fundamentally flawed business model are all examples of business practices that might erode motivation when taken to an extreme. Researchers have found that employees are significantly more likely to lie about their work or fudge numbers when their compensation rests on meeting “stretch goal” quotas, or when they are afraid of the consequences of failure.12 When faced with excessively aggressive stretch-goal compensation structures, it is all too easy for employees to feel that they have no choice but to do what ever it takes to make sure they meet their numbers. A classic example occurred in 1992 when Sears decided to boost sales in its automotive division. Upper management gave Sears’s automotive employees highly aggressive goals for selling parts and services. Sales went up. However, regulators later discovered that the employees had been lying to customers and performing unnecessary repairs 90 percent of the time.13 Employees within other Sears groups, such as major-appliance and Allstate insurance sales, admitted in interviews with The New York Times that they “feared getting fired if they didn’t meet sales quotas. Some even [said] they felt pressured to cheat to keep their jobs.”14 Jiffy Lube, too, was forced to restructure its incentives after fraudulent repairs were revealed to be rampant in 2006.
The problem of exaggerated results or unethical behavior to reach goals is not limited to the automotive or retail industry. Consider the head of an international division who demands increasingly higher revenues from a foreign office. If the head of that office starts to doubt that he can meet his projections, he may eventually resort to bribery to guarantee that he gets the contracts necessary for him to reach his goals. The head of the division, whose own pay is tied to performance, is relieved to report consistently rising revenue, and therefore has no incentive to question his foreign office’s tactics.
When such a discovery is made, an auditor will work with the organization’s leaders to identify the underlying cause. Over-aggressive goal setting is a deception-inducing problem auditors frequently encounter. At Sears, for example, “management checks designed to prevent overselling may have been missing. And since the same policies exist in other Sears divisions, management oversight may [have been] lacking in those areas, too.”15 In the case of the corrupt foreign office, the problem may have originated from setting unreasonable goals without any input from those expected to meet them. An auditor working with either of these companies might recommend ways to balance aggressive goal setting with a support system designed to ensure that team members are set up to succeed; not fail. The auditor might also suggest revisions to the organizations’ compensation methods that will eliminate anyone’s temptation to cheat, cut corners, or lie. In general, the auditor will work with managers to set high but realistic goals that challenge and motivate employees, transforming goal setting from an arbitrary method of reward and punishment into a powerful, positive motivational tool.
Phase 3: Committing to Change
A deception audit takes time, commitment, and no small amount of courage. You might dig deep only to discover that you don’t like what you find. You may think you have a reasonably healthy organization, while an audit reveals that some areas require a major overhaul. You could find evidence of widespread fraud or theft that you weren’t even aware existed.
When considering whether to conduct an audit, it’s impor
tant to recognize that the audit is merely the first step in a long-term process. Don’t bother bringing in an expert to evaluate your company if you’re not prepared to dedicate yourself wholeheartedly to this third phase: committing to change, and building a trust-based culture. Reaping the benefits of an audit requires that you transform the culture of your business in ways that can be felt from the corner office down to the mailroom.
As one researcher put it, “There is a singular role that leaders play in securing employee commitment to…their vision for the future.”16 Just as we are somewhat responsible for bringing deception into our personal lives by operating with blind spots to our own vulnerabilities, we are also responsible for enabling deception in our workplaces. That doesn’t excuse people who commit fraud or steal or lie—they shouldn’t be let off the hook just because their particular transgression isn’t specifically prohibited in the employee handbook. It is not a leader’s job to play moral police. Yet how you comport yourself, the messages you send, and the attitude with which you conduct business are indicators of how honest you can expect people around you to be. If you gloat about times when you were able to negotiate a sweeter deal than you anticipated because you withheld information, you’re sending a signal that such behavior is acceptable as long as it benefits your company. If you make it clear in every meeting that you just want to get the business at hand taken care of so you can get on to more important matters, you’re discouraging debate and dissension, which can lead others to feel powerless.
It is vital that you behave in such a way as to make sure the people who work for and with you know that you’re not just paying lip service to honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior, that they are not just buzzwords in a mission statement or an employee handbook. The effort you put into making your organization a place where it’s easy to tell the truth will be a small price to pay for the tremendous increase you will notice in productivity, morale, and your own peace of mind.
NINE
BUILDING YOUR BRAIN TRUST
Jim Sehorn was CEO of a graphic design company that was growing like gangbusters. When his creative director quit so his wife could take a job opportunity in another state, Jim immediately thought to contact Kevin Diller, an old frat brother he had reconnected with at a party a few months back. He had kept up with Kevin’s accomplishments for a while but hadn’t heard anything about him for a few years, and he felt fortunate to find an inroad to rekindling their friendship. Since the party, they had played golf a few times, and during these games Jim remembered why Kevin had been a legend on campus. Charming and brilliant, Kevin had been the quintessential “joiner,” active in many university organizations. He was also a fierce risk-taker and somewhat belligerent toward authority, qualities which had at once amused his classmates and alienated professors and administrators. He graduated with honors, and early on made a name for himself as someone who could inspire others and get things done. Now Jim was hoping he could convince Kevin to bring some of his charisma and creativity to Jim’s graphic design company. After inviting him to the office for a short interview, Jim introduced Kevin to the other members of his team so they could speak to him on their own. As Jim expected, everyone reported that they thought Kevin would be a great addition to the team. After a quick call to Kevin’s last place of employment and a cursory check of his Linked In page, which boasted several glowing recommendations, Jim offered Kevin the creative director position. To his delight, Kevin accepted.
In the ensuing months, Jim repeatedly congratulated himself on making such a smart hire. The office seemed to crackle with energy as Kevin bounded around talking to his team. He spent a lot of time in Jim’s office, too, and since they always seemed to be leaving or coming into the building at the same time, Kevin soon became Jim’s near constant companion at work. As time went on, Jim found himself seeking input and advice from Kevin, and confiding more and more in him, even about some personal matters.
One night Jim was attending the mixer at the end of a conference in Miami when he spotted an acquaintance of his who worked at another agency, which happened to be the one where Kevin had last worked. “You know,” said Jim proudly, “Kevin Diller is working for me now. I really love that package design he came up with for you guys, the one for the mouthwash.”
Jim’s acquaintance looked at him quizzically. “Kevin didn’t do that for us. He oversaw the project, but another team came up with the idea.” Jim was surprised. Kevin had told him an entertaining story about how the idea had come to him while he was mowing the lawn, and how he’d gotten so excited and lost in thought he’d accidentally razed an entire patch of cyclamens. Not sure what to think, Jim didn’t say anything about the incident to Kevin upon his return.
A few weeks later, while talking to a client on the phone, he was shocked to hear her reassure him, “Listen, I wasn’t sure whether to bring this up, but we’ve known each other a long time. I just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear about you and Julie. I’ve been there; I know this is a hard time. But don’t worry, if you just keep talking to them, the kids are going to be fine.” Jim had only told one person at the office that he and his wife had separated. He hung up the phone feeling stunned and exposed. He let the matter sit for a few days before confronting Kevin. Kevin seemed dismayed at having caused Jim any embarrassment; he swore it had been a complete slip of the tongue. He was so contrite that Jim found himself comforting his friend, and told him not to worry about it.
The final straw came only a few days later. The evening before a big pitch, the team gathered to make final decisions on the idea they would present to their potential new client. Though Kevin felt strongly that the idea they code-named “Moto” was the strongest, the rest of the team agreed there were flaws they couldn’t fix at this late date, and they decided to present the idea called “Cars.”
The next day, Jim was shocked when his account director burst into his office:
“I thought we decided to present Cars.”
“We did,” Jim said.
“No,” the account director said. “Kevin presented Moto.”
Jim was stunned. “What did you do?”
“What could we do? We would have looked bad if we’d interrupted.”
“What did the client say?” asked Jim, sweating a bit.
“They thought it was okay, but they asked to see some more ideas by next week.”
This time, when Jim stormed into Kevin’s office, the gloves were off. Their argument was heated and intense, with Kevin adamant that he had done the company a favor by presenting superior creative work. If Jim couldn’t see it his way, maybe the wrong person in the room was running the company.
Bemused and upset, Jim called up his acquaintance that he had bumped into at the conference and told him what had happened with Kevin. The man said he wasn’t surprised, because Kevin had been ousted from their company under similar circumstances. “I wasn’t sure whether it was okay to tell you,” he apologized. But there was still one more surprise left. In talking to this man, Jim realized that Kevin had left his former company a good year before Kevin’s résumé said he had. How was that possible? It was in this way that he learned about the existence of a company called CareerExcuse.com, which for a fee would pose as a former employer and provide positive references to cover any undesirable gaps in a person’s résumé.
Jim gave himself credit for giving Kevin a fair chance and then dismissing him quickly and decisively. But he was now saddled with such intense feelings of betrayal, he wondered if he’d ever be able to trust another colleague again.
FROM LIESPOTTING TO TRUST BUILDING
Jim made a common error by mistaking Kevin’s charisma and promises of friendship for honesty and intimacy. Had he been a trained liespotter, however, it’s unlikely he would have been blinded by Kevin’s charms (and he definitely would have done a more thorough reference check). That’s the beauty of liespotting. When you started reading Chapter 1 of this book, your chances of being deceived were quite high. No
w, if you’ve absorbed everything you need to know to be a liespotter, your chances are significantly lower. Once the process becomes second nature—and you’d be surprised at how quickly that happens—liespotting allows you to spend less time protecting yourself against liars and more time building the infrastructure of trust that is critical for high achievement. How to use the insight you’ve gained to thoughtfully and strategically build a cornerstone of that infrastructure so that you never find yourself in a situation like the unfortunate Jim Sehorn is the topic of the remainder of this chapter.
YOUR BRAIN TRUST
Like most successful professionals, in addition to your own talent and hard work, you have probably relied upon the advice, expertise, and support of a coterie of colleagues, consultants, friends, and family members to help you get where you are today. Maybe this ever-widening network has been a source of pride, a testament to where you began and how far you’ve come. Maybe its first member was your grad school roommate who eventually became CEO of his own company. Later, you might have added the other junior-level hire (now chief strategist at a rival firm) who started with you at your first job and with whom you commiserated over Chinese takeout during those excruciatingly long nights of proving yourselves at the office. Over time, the group might have expanded to include your third boss; some members of your professional association; and your current company’s retired head of sales.
If you stop to think about it, though, your network probably also includes a slew of individuals who wandered into your world by accident or circumstance, but whose presence may not be particularly beneficial: the business manager of another firm whom you met at a conference; the CFO of a company in an unrelated field who handed you her business card during a short flight; your attorney who is an old friend but whose expertise hasn’t kept up with the changes occurring in your field; your well-liked but underperforming IT director; a few members of your industry Facebook fan page; your squash partner; your therapist; and your mother-in-law.