Face The Dragons

This is a guest post by Tom McCallum. Tom originally wrote this piece for his blog two years ago almost to the day, and has tweaked it just a bit for this, the first guest post on my blog. Tom heads up Shirlaws (Cayman) Ltd (full disclosure, my company is a client) and now writes on this blog. You can also follow him on Twitter

We live in a world far different from just a few years ago, a world where what it takes to be a successful leader has totally and completely changed.  We live in a world where a leader must face the dragons of the unknown.

Map of ancient world

What Can We Learn From Pirates?

A lasting organisation has to be a sustainable organisation.

With Pirates Week starting today here in Cayman its a reminder that an organisation can’t be all about the here and the now. OK, the pirate analogy is probably a bit of a stretch. That said, at least around these parts there are now no pirates. So, what happened?

Well, piracy is a ‘business’ built on the foundation of no ethics. Thats the first clue that an organisation will not be around for long. Perhaps they could get away with it for a while, but the tipping point comes when unethical behaviour is just too much for the surrounding society to bear and a concerted effort is placed on removing the offending person, group, or business.

No business is going to stand the test of time unless it is firmly and culturally rooted in ethical decision making. What do you do to encourage ethical decision making in your life and your business?