truly I have something entirely different to uh share with you today it is uh it's based on some work that I've done over a long period of time this is just a subset of a series of Pop uh of popular press articles I'm writing in a case study also based on research of others and personal experience so wow these talk talks take many different forms this one instead of being about me is really going to be about you so what you'll see is I'm actually this this is a called to action much like Michelle's but it's called to action for leaders leaders those of you that are leaders the leaders where you work and the organizations you belong to so let's start this off with let's make it personal for you so first how many of you are students and by the way these lights really should be out there besides the glare off my head is probably blinding so okay so a lot of students and then the rest of you working some of you plenty of the students I know are working great so in any case I I know how many of you have witnessed unethical uh Behavior at school or work hands up take a look around all right great well how many of you have been targets okay how many of you aren't telling the truth great all right I'll stop uh shadowing the light but that's pretty tough so in any case a Harvard Business Review study uh revealed that 98% of employees have reported experiencing unethical Behavior at work so I just trust that means that it's everywhere all of the time and sadly this trend is getting worse the incidence has doubled since 1998 to 2011 so now forms of unethical Behavior at work there are a bunch so wherever I show when there's anything in yellow those are questions for you to ponder don't have nearly enough time to solicit and share some of your answers so you need to ask and answer these Ponder these yourselves but that said how many of you have been punished in a performance review nobody okay so I'm the only one okay great so had your reputation or opportunities undermined by co-workers or supervisors all right check okay uh yelled yelled at or sworn at by your boss or co-workers why don't you people live Charmed lives either that or you're just a little uneasy about sharing here okay now forced to go along shut up or else it's going to cost you yeah see so this is a pervasive issue this is why this is the this is the uh business case for why what I'm going to talk about today matters so bullying is a particular one that growing in incidents certainly a form of unethical Behavior so not just kids stuff anymore not the older or bigger kid at school in fact now that we're adults and at work it's a lot worse so for example how much worse 27% of employees have uh report being the direct or direct targets of 72% have witnessed it and 72% of employers either defend some somehow rationalize or otherwise justify that sort of behavior it's an epidemic so why should leaders care I can overwhelm you with a bunch of stats these are some reasons why because add these all together it affects performance it affects performance in many ways so if it affects your performance as an individual employee that obviously affects the performance of your co-workers your boss your unit your larger larger organization and again if the incidence is so high this is happen happening in many places every day so that said and by the way so I'll compel to those of you that are in those leadership positions formal ones look uh CEOs or Executives rather reported that they spend 15% of their time in a year dealing with unethical conduct translation seven weeks holy cow that's awful so what a drain so now importantly is this sort of of unethical behavior that I have described thus far is it unethical yes of course it is by definition but is it illegal no and that's a very important difference the vast majority vast vast majority of unethical conduct is legal so don't take my word for it let's look at Eric Holder the number one law man in the land well forly so he said so related to the financial crisis so terrific quote he says that while the conduct that led to the crisis could be was indeed unethical and re irresponsible the fact is is that some of the behavior even morally reprehensible the fact of the matter is the vast majority of is not illegal not criminal you want some more stats my last stat today only two dozen less than two dozen by the way that's 24 out of 14,000 cases that were brought actually implicated the senior leadership of those organizations remember I'm a business professor I'm going to bring all sorts of work examples so okay uh now this is the topic of my talk this is what I compel in my uh call to action for you folks is that legal versus ethical liability it's a crisis of leadership and culture and I'm going to focus on higher ed today given the audience so with that I illustrate it this way make it a little lighter but just as serious so legal liability yeah that's a low hurdle if that's your only standard that's easy to cover no problem you can fall over that one and and and be happy about it okay so now ah when you start to contemplate the ethical liability what is it what's my role that's much more challenging and frankly as this shows many shy away from it so now from a leadership perspective legal liability I say is a test of smarts if you get into legal trouble frankly often times you blew it common sense it's just hey that wasn't very smart however what is infinitely more important I argue is ethical liability that's a test of character our leaders certainly need to be smart but I think what also is relevant and that we expect from them today in all arenas not just higher ed certainly is a test of character we want character Leaders with character so what's the most common form of unethical leadership without question allowing unethical conduct to continue either not knowing hey I didn't know therefore I'm not responsible as a leader you are or knowing and not acting that's even worse so unethical leadership breeds unethical cultures the follow on from that cultures are what perpetuate Behavior so if you have unethical leadership unethical cultures reinforces unethical Behavior now college sports I don't really need to use anything else for uh evidence for the case but we're not going to go through these in in any real detail but symptomatic of the crisis Penn State coach sanduski we all know of that one Ruckers coach coach rice remember throwing the basketballs bullying violence Etc Ohio State both coach Trussell the band director blah blah blah Florida State they countless often involving local police amazing Syracuse here that one recently beheim uh North Carolina 10 years of academic fraud 10 years SMU sorry Pony Express right we know that okay so the problem though those were problems each and every incident but is that none were isolated incidents these were patterns patterns are a real problem so and the fact that these were institutionalized because they were tolerated or condoned by leaders at all levels in these organizations so this is not a sports culture problem however hear this in the news the popular media is that hey we have a sports culture problem with sports hey look Sports happen within the context of a larger University so this is a higher ed culture problem which means it's a leadership problem and the fact that it's so pervasive and the costs are so great that's what makes it a crisis and this begs the question well why does this happen yeah kind of funny righty chuckle chuckle yeah business as usual bad behavior let's sweep it under the rug under our culture rug that covers that all up till it grows into a big Mound Here's Your Leader just doing business as usual la la la la la la okay now why leaders delegate ethics they don't intervene when and where it happens and what happens it escalates it becomes a pattern becomes condoned embedded so now again another yellow question for you to ponder how is knowing and doing nothing different different from saying hey that's okay go ahead bully go ahead harass go head be unfair so I didn't know or it's her her his responsibility in their area hey if you're aware of it you're responsible for it so particularly patterns it's your job I do a lot of leadership teaching work leadership development Consulting leadership 101 do not delegate ethics okay so another cause no consequences for the leaders are leaders Above the Law many times it seems so so so many examples So Jamie Diamond JP Morgan one of the most highly revered people on Wall Street absolutely he's still the CEO still revered more every day got a pay raise last year this is all despite what JP Morgan paying over 20 billion yeah billion with a b b billion dollars in legal settlements all that happened on his watch by the way he didn't adopt any of that it happened he's responsible yet what he's still the revered man in that position Jim beheim yeah so those of you that follow this what 10 years 10 years of academic fraud well yeah and there are sanctions absolutely and they're appropriate and some of them are pretty extreme but yeah he gets to stay in his job for three more years until his contract runs out please okay Joe pno Tom Ross we know those hey in my own Department hey we have Department shair senior faculty members Deans provos well aware of a pattern of bullying and unethical conduct intimidation retaliation Etc over four years no consequences for any of them so this is this condone so what ends up happening it gets embedded in the culture and it signals that unethical Behavior if it's not actually expected that it's okay so long as you're protected you're revered or you're otherwise in power so why no consequences for leaders we can speculate these are some good reasons one the Halo of reputations this is a big one years of service you've been doing that job for 10 years 20 30 40 hey there's no problem oh hey look I know him I know her she's great she would never do that well look people have said that about Paterno and all the other people I've listed yet that happened all of these things happen performance metrics hey what do we measure we measure what we get profits wins championships rankings donations centers blah blah blah all those things I don't know of one single organization that directly measures ethical Behavior you think yeah unethical sure if it torpedo but ethical conduct hubris of course that's the constant challenge for leaders everywhere is that hey rules apply to others but not to me or the willingness to admit confront their mistakes and then what I refer to as the BBT syndrome you bend the boss too long so many in the organizations you work for look how long have the presidents been the presidents here Deans Deans coaches coaches often times for decades when was the last time they were the target of unethical conduct so as a result it's abstract to them it's something they they need to manage not something they actually experience so and I ask you again a yellow question here what about the leaders where you work is there consequence to BBT so now leaders Foster on ethical cultures so famous Texas Senator Sam Rayburn hey if you want to get along go along this phrase is a Hallmark of unethical cultures people don't speak up and those that do they're punished or otherwise suffer some of the consequence perhaps they're bullied the cult what about the culture where you work how many of you have a goal to get along culture where you work yeah you're just bashful and shy that's all right that's why I'm up here I'm going to say the tough things today all right so antidotes and I'll wrap this up because I'm running over I'm going to get the hook so um would you tolerate bullying of a customer or student no you wouldn't where you were you wouldn't so why do you tolerate that sort of conduct or treatment of employees codes of Ethics they're just empty words unless leaders actually Walk The Talk they're responsible just empty words unless they comply themselves modeling matters so have some of these terrific quotes look and one of these people is one of the most powerful people in a university the other one hey has experienced the uh has received the greatest raises of anybody in the University it's been recently promoted department chair hey we're not care watch out be a Dean or a Provost or president someday so accountability look there needs to be accountability not just oh hey the coaches just in the athletics department look that needs to go up the chain because they're also responsible so communicate compliance and non- compliance celebrate the people that have made the tough call that have made the tough choice that have done the tough thing and don't hide or sweep under the rug people that have not now too closing slides this one remember legal does not mean ethical so this is my call to action clearing this hurdle the ethical liability hurdle that's what builds your leadership your character as well as the character and quality of your organizations and I leave with these parting shots Ponder these this is your to-do list and thank you very much