Memo to the Class of '09

A tough job market shouldn't make B-school grads compromise on their ethics— now or at any point in their careers

By Bruce Weinstein, PhD

To: Business School Graduates, Class of 2009
From: The Ethics Guy at BusinessWeek.com
Re: Your Future

Congratulations! Your hard work and persistence have paid off, and you are now on your way to a successful career in business.

In the coming months you'll be getting a lot of advice from family, friends, and general well-wishers, but please allow me, an ethicist, to offer mine as well. After all, many of the biggest crises today are a result of unethical conduct in business, and in the most recent annual Gallup Ethics and Honesty poll, business executives, advertising practitioners, and stockbrokers were among the least-trusted professionals. By taking the following guidelines to heart, you'll let the world know that you are a person of honor and integrity and are someone clients and colleagues can trust.

1. Listen to the Whispers

Frances Hesselbein, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management) and former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, speaks of the importance of "listening to the whispers" you hear every time you're about to make a decision. She is referring not to the rumor mill but to the voice within that keeps you on the right track.

No matter what station you occupy within an organization—unpaid intern, midlevel executive, or president—you will be tempted to take the low road from time to time. Perhaps a client will ask you for a favor that goes against company policy. Maybe your boss will tell you to do something that is ethically or legally questionable. Possibly you'll be torn between covering up a mistake you've made or owning up to it. You can talk yourself into just about any decision, but if you follow Hesselbein's wise counsel, you'll make the best decision.

2. Keep Your Promises

It seems quaint, perhaps even naive, to talk about the importance of being true to your word, but trustworthiness isn't a nicety of doing business; it's a necessity. Clients are more likely to continue giving you their business and to recommend you when they know you mean what you say. Your company is more likely to keep you on board, to promote you, and to give you a raise when you consistently do what you say you will. You earn the respect of your colleagues when you honor the promises you make.

The contract you sign with the organization is a legal document, but at its most fundamental level it is a covenant, a form of promise-making. You promise to fulfill the responsibilities in your job description, and your employer promises to pay you, to provide a safe working environment and, one hopes, to provide health-care benefits, a retirement plan, and a generous amount of paid vacation.

As with any promise, if either party reneges, the pact is broken. You can't be expected to keep working if your employer stops paying you. Likewise, good employees know that being true to their word means taking the job description seriously, day in and day out.

You trust your friends to keep their word, and you justifiably end friendships when this is no longer the case. Don't your clients, colleagues, and boss deserve the same level of commitment from you that you ask of your friends?

3. Speak Up

At some point—probably more than once—in your career, you will encounter someone at work doing something he or she shouldn't be doing. When this happens, it will be very tempting to ignore it. Don't. If you discover shady goings-on at your company, you not only have a right to speak up, you have an ethical obligation to do so. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [people] do nothing," Edmund Burke said. No one likes confrontations, but the simple act of observing wrongdoing sometimes calls upon you to do or say something, even though it would be simpler to keep quiet. If Sherron Watkins, Cynthia Cooper, and Coleen Rowley hadn't taken action where they worked, the scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and the FBI might never have been exposed.

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