In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, Brian Peckrill, executive director of the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund, and Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president and CEO of SHRM, join me in a discussion on how an ethical leader can foster a strong culture of integrity and inclusion from the top of the organization to the bottom.

For the past three years, the McGowan Charitable Fund and SHRM have partnered to present the Ethical Leader of the Year Award to a CEO they believe embodies the belief that principles and profits are not incompatible.

“There are great leaders out there in the world who are making business decisions that have both great financial impacts, but are also mindful of their stakeholders, their customers, as well as their workforces,” says Peckrill.

Peckrill says there are six core competencies that make up an ethical leader – character, integrity, accountability, empathy, self-awareness, resilience, and courage. “Leaders need all of these. Sometimes they need different qualities at different moments, but to really put forth a leadership practice that doesn’t just benefit the financial performance of the organization but pushes the organization forward and serves its people, (leaders) need all of these values.”

He adds that CEOs that embrace these values are transforming both their organizations and society.

SHRM’s Taylor agrees and says without strong ethical leadership at the top organizations can struggle. “It’s because the culture is not one that makes clear that ethics is the way we do business. When you think about ethical cultures, it is both a treetop and a sort of ground-up grassroots effort to get this right. We need every employee, and we need all leaders. And we do this right, then we have business cultures that are successful and ethical.”

He says there’s a right and a wrong way to do business and the ethical decision is one that we’ve got to make sure that we teach our colleagues how to recognize.

This year, McGowan and SHRM presented the Ethical Leader of the Year Award to Marvin Ellison, president and CEO of Lowe’s. Peckrill says Ellison was an easy choice based on how, under his leadership, the company has invested in its workers and the communities it serves both during and after the COVID pandemic.

Listen to the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts to learn more about Ellison’s leadership and also more about the benefits to a company when the CEO makes a clear choice to set ethical standards and insist they are followed from the top to the bottom of the organization.

Or you can catch the interview on my Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 328: Brian Peckrill, executive director, William G. McGowan Charitable Fund and Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president & CEO, SHRM
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here