Fighting Compromise
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As Enron was collapsing in the fall of 2001, the Boston Globe published an article by a Harvard classmate of Enron CEO Jeff Skilling. The author described how Skilling would argue in class that the role of the business leader was to take advantage of loopholes in regulations and push beyond the laws wherever he could to make money. As Skilling saw the world, it was the job of the regulators to try and catch him. Sound familiar? Twenty-five years later, Skilling’s philosophy caught up with him, as he led his company into bankruptcy.
–from Authentic Leadership by Bill George
As I read this story about Mr. Skilling, I was struck by how common this attitude can be. I’ve seen first hand the trap that success can bring: first you exploit the grey areas to bring continued success; then you expand the grey areas; finally you decide very few issues can be truly “black and white.”
I’ve also been fortunate to have several role models in my life who have consistently modeled excellence in this area. They seem to make every issue black and white - which makes the decisions easy, but the follow-through may not be painless.
When I check my own attitude when dealing with regulations, taxes, and laws in general, I like to ask questions like the following:
- Do I knowingly choose convenience over compliance if I won’t get caught?
- Do I purposely remain ignorant about the law so that I can claim ignorance if I violate it?
- Do I live my life in pursuit of living up to the spirit of the law or do I look for gaps in the letter of the law?
I think if I’m honest, I have fallen short on each of these questions at some point in my life. That said, I know that today I’m more cognizant of my attitude in these matters than I was several years ago. I can see significant growth in this area, but I do not want to loose my edge. As with so many aspects of Leadership, I need to always evaluate the example I set by the life I live and compare it to the values I claim to embrace.