Professionalism Series – 5.2: On the road to silos
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I will try to brief on this one.
Unethical people will always only be trying to protect themselves in the company.
They always spend an exorbitant amount of effort in making sure that their own bases are covered, and that their image and presentation to their boss is perfect.
This might be OK, but it becomes a crime when:
- A person does this at the concious expense of his/her coworkers (even ‘not giving credit where it is due’ fits into this category)
- A person does this without thinking about the company as a whole.
This type of behaviour can result in ‘evil’ (for lack of more technical terms) silos within your organization.
I said evil because even good departments can become silos (and I may write about that at another time).
So what is the opposite (i.e. ethical) behaviour to adopt? Well, simply think about the greater good of the company as a whole, rather than about yourself as an individual.
If all the employees from all the departments were just one big team, think about how all of you together are making the claims they are to customers, and how they are delivering on those claims, and how they are protecting themselves along the way.
The key question to ask is: Is it worth making sure your bases are covered (just so no one can justify laying you off)? Is it still worth it if — by focusing so much on liability to yourself — you overlook a certain clause for the company in an agreement that causes a $MM lawsuit to the company and effectively runs it into the ground?
In that case, does it matter how, or when, or why you were covering your own bases if the company (and hence your job) just ceases to exist?
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