When our kids were teenagers, the last thing they heard from my husband as they were walking out the door was usually, “Do the right thing.” Hopefully, as their parents, we had been effective in providing a moral compass they could use to determine what “the right thing” was.

It is the same in the workplace.

Ethics is a set of moral principles (for an individual, organization or society) that guides accepted behavior. Hopefully, organizational leadership effectively defines and models the standard for what “accepted behavior” means within any given business.

To that end and with this week’s introduction of “My Safe Workplace,” [a confidential ethics hotline,] I thought some quotes on ethics would be appropriate.

The most powerful moral influence is example. -Huston Smith

The meaning of good and bad, of better and worse, is simply helping or hurting. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. -Oprah Winfrey

Tuesday Tidbits are weekly messages I send to my leadership team. They are generally short & sweet, often focused on leadership or teamwork, always positive and, hopefully, motivational. I hope you also find some meaning in them.

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