T7 – Ethics


The Compass is a draft now. Please submit your comments in the comment section below or email them to us: info@omimo.org
The review stage ends on 2025-11-01.

The outer ring in the behavioral model of the Compass is the ethics category. Being the last category, it completes the set of behaviors and surrounds everything we do.

Scope

Your ethical responsibilities, as a leader, are toward the following:

Power vs. responsibility

The more power you have, the more responsibility you should have, and that includes ethical responsibilities as well. Therefore, leaders who are also managers have a higher ethical responsibility than those who are not.

Justification

Some people believe that being ethical pays you back in the long term and that being ethical can be justifiable from the business perspective; for example, by building reputation and trust. This is dangerous because once business reasons become the justification for ethics, they can also be the reason for violating ethics when they don’t align.

We act ethically because it’s our way of life, and we don’t need a business justification for it.

Ethics vs. law

Some ethical topics are covered by law in various countries, but that doesn’t make law and ethics equivalent, as there are many more ethical concerns that go beyond the law. Also, ethical principles may not align with the current laws in your country, which is how many social reform movements start. You need to understand and comply with legal necessities as a safeguard, and on top of that, you act ethically as a norm.

If you work long enough, you will probably face difficult decisions in which the law and ethics contradict each other. You must be prepared and know which one you want to give priority to when this happens.

Absolutism

You’re not alone if you think you can’t act ethically 100% of the time. That’s natural, but you shouldn’t let that discourage you from being ethical altogether. Just try to be as ethical as you practically can, and gradually improve on it.

Supporting the people category

We should act ethically because there are other people in the world. That’s why we need to have the ethics category in this context. In other words, being ethical is not the ultimate goal (otherwise it would have been in the center of the behavioral model), but it’s a necessity.

The practical consequence of this point is for decision makers: Selecting an ethical leader is not enough; you must select a leader who can support the creation of solutions and who also acts ethically.

Behaviors

The following are the desirable leader’s behaviors related to ethics:

  1. You act ethically, even when it’s challenging to do so or when no one else is acting ethically.
  2. You consider yourself as responsible for the decisions you could have made but didn’t as for those you did make.
  3. You encourage, respect, and support ethical behavior in people around you.
  4. You don’t tell lies to yourself or others.
  5. You keep your word.
  6. You respect people’s privacy.
  7. You treat people fairly, without discriminating based on gender, race, religion, etc.
  8. You carefully consider the impact of actions on people, organizations, the environment, cultural heritage, etc.
  9. You pursue opportunities that benefit both you and others and avoid zero-sum situations when possible.
  10. You actively strive to improve the well-being of people who work for you.
  11. You guide, help, and encourage people around you to develop their capabilities.
  12. You learn about the culture of the people you work with and respect it to a reasonable degree.
  13. You don’t blame others for your mistakes and don’t take credit for what others have done.
  14. You match people’s responsibilities with their capabilities and preferences whenever possible.
  15. You disclose your conflicts of interest.