Can You Learn Ethics?

Clyde Tuggle, who is vice president in charge of worldwide communications at Coca-Cola, always makes his points succinctly. He notes that "you cannot teach someone to be ethical. Either you are ethical or you are not." Other top executives with whom I have discussed the issue agree. For example, top banker Drew Baur practically echoed Mr. Tuggle's statements when he told me that "you can't put an adjective in front of the word 'honest.' Either you are or you are not." You have to decide on your own whether you are going to conduct yourself ethically. No one can make you do it.

Unfortunately, however, merely deciding to be ethical does not make you ethically invincible. Ethical people often find themselves in trouble because they did not understand or know where the ethical line was, or because they received bad advice regarding what was proper and what was improper. In certain areas of business, such as exporting, environmental law, taxation, and doing business with the government, the standard of ethical conduct is often counterintuitive.

Moreover, many senior executives get into trouble because they failed to communicate the proper ethical standard to others or because they hired people who did not have the same commitment to ethics that they did. As you get higher in a professional structure, there will be an increasingly greater number of people whose conduct will be imputed to you. That presents a huge risk to your career.