The Ethical Challenge : How to Lead with Unyielding Integrity

The Enron debacle, the demise of Arthur Andersen, questionable practices at Tyco, Qwest, WorldCom, and a seemingly endless list of others have pushed public regard for business and business leaders to new lows. The need for smart leaders with vision and integrity has never been greater. Things need to change—and it will not be easy.

We can take a first step toward producing better business leaders by changing some of our own ideas about what it means to "win." Noel M. Tichy and Andrew R. McGill have brought together a stellar group of contributors from a variety of perspectives—including General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and renowned management gurus Robert Quinn and C. K. Prahalad, among others—to offer insights that will help build better leaders, communities, and organizations. They show how to present a "Teachable Point of View" about business ethics that will help all leaders within an organization:

• Internalize core values
• Build a values-based culture across the organization
• Become engaged to teach the same values lessons to their staff
• Take action and raise the ethical bar

Successful business leaders must be able to articulate their own unique Teachable Point of View on business ethics and drive it through their organization to ensure that everyone knows the ethical line and is neither shy nor silent if others risk crossing it.

Noel M. Tichy— author of the best-selling The Leadership Engine and the Cycle of Leadership— is a professor of organizational behavior and human resource management at the University of Michigan Business School, where he is director of the Global Leadership Program and the Global Business Partnership. His consulting clients have included Citibank, Exxon, General Motors, Hitachi, IBM, Pepsico, Royal Dutch Shell, and other international corporations.

Andrew R. McGill is director of the Global Business Partnership at the University of Michigan Business School, where he is also adjunct associate professor of organizational behavior and human resource management. His research focuses on organizations changing to better serve their customers and he consults widely on the topic in the health care, financial services, technology, and automotive industries.