Major brands such as Facebook, Volkswagen, Starbucks, and most recently Papa John’s have endured controversies that called into question their ethical practices. Those companies are only the latest to be exposed for problems that consumers and those knowledgeable about corporate culture often link with a lack of ethical standards at the highest executive level. This can cause an erosion in the public’s trust, which in turn eats away at a company’s bottom line. Research by Mintel revealed 56 percent of U.S. consumers stop buying from companies they believe are unethical, and it also showed that more than 60 percent of consumers think ethical issues are becoming more important. 

There’s an opportunity here, says an international ethics expert, for companies to get ahead of the curve by incorporating better ethics before damage control forces it upon them. “Controversies and scandals in corporations have the power to shift them from moral autopilot to an energized manual control, where they are acutely aware of their actions and their impact,” says Dr. Christopher Gilbert, author of There’s No Right Way To Do the Wrong Thing and senior consultant/speaker at NobleEdge Consulting (www.nobleedgeconsulting.com). “But it doesn’t and shouldn’t require misfortune to switch things up.

“As powerful public figures and corporate executives are switched to the truths of equality and justice, the costs of their unethical decision-making become crystal clear to everyone. The dominoes are still falling daily. But never doubt that a rising cry for equity and opportunity can change hearts and grow into a global mind shift.” Gilbert offers five steps for business leaders to help their companies avoid ethical problems and elevate ethical development.

• Be your own guru. A good leader asks questions of those he most trusts. In helping shape a stronger ethical foundation, how do they view the leader’s own views of right and wrong? “Your decisions are yours, and every step up the moral ladder is yours,” says Gilbert. “Make those choices wisely and while knowing every tier of your organization will be well-supported with a well-thought-out ethical foundation.”
• Practice “behindism.” Leave the old “isms” behind. “Your actions, justifications, rationalizations and explanations should always be worthy of the trust of others,” Gilbert says. “Concentrate on the question, ‘Is this action going to create more trust with the others, or erode it?’ ” 
• Pass around your decoder ring. Share your codes liberally. “Let people know what you’re saying and what you mean,” Gilbert says. “Be forthright, transparent. Hiding behind words or the true meaning of your words is part of an unethical action.”
• Trustworthiness is as trustworthiness does. “Transformation is a challenging process ensuring incredible and life-changing possibilities,” he says. “The opportunities in building trust are limitless, so concentrate your actions around those that build up your trustworthiness.”
• Watch what you “eat.” Gilbert calls these ethical acid tests, or EATs: “Does your decision stand up to public scrutiny? What if it appeared on the cover of the local newspaper or was broadcast? Do you want your significant other, children, colleagues or bosses to do this same thing? Does this decision advance the long-term common good?”

“What you think about ethics becomes your ethics,” Gilbert says. “If you believe ethics are grey, you will find yourself in greyer and greyer situations where the choices get blurrier. Where you see, know and act with the assurance that ethics are there to tell us right from wrong, you will be put into more and more situations where the answer is obvious – despite the complexity of the circumstances.”
 
About Christopher Gilbert, Ph.D.
Dr. Christopher Gilbert, the author of There’s No Right Way To Do the Wrong Thing, is an international ethics consultant and senior consultant/speaker at NobleEdge Consulting (www.nobleedgeconsulting.com). Having spent much of his career focused on the study of human moral development, Dr. Gilbert has over 30 years of experience in organizational development as a strategic facilitator and leadership and operations consultant. He has served an international clientele, including Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies in the U.S., Canada, Asia and Africa. Dr. Gilbert completed work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on a sustainable food-security program across four nations of sub-Saharan Africa, and he has been a professor of business ethics who taught at universities on four continents. He earned his doctorate in Organization, Management and Leadership Ethics at Capella University.

Every day, businesses across the country hum along efficiently, their operations supported by enormous reams of data that most employees – and bosses – take for granted. Need to check inventory? Want to make sure a customer paid a bill? That information and much more is stored somewhere in a computer, always at the ready in time of need.
Except when it’s not. 

Sometimes things go awry – a hacker, a system crash – that cause a business to lose critical data, and that can be devastating to the bottom line. Worst-case scenario: The business goes out of business.
“If you’re a business owner and you’ve not thought of data in relation to your financial well-being, don’t feel bad; you’re not alone,” says Penny Garbus, co-founder of Soaring Eagle Consulting Inc. (www.SoaringEagle.guru) and co-author of Mining New Gold – Managing your Business Data.

“Sometimes people are so busy running their businesses that they don’t have time to worry about the bits and bytes of their data and how relevant it is to longevity of their business.” But they should, she says. Without data protection processes and procedures in place, the business could face serious consequences. Garbus says data is like gold: It can be traded, it’s the base for creation of products, and if you lose it, you lose money.

Here are just three ways in which a failure to secure data can prove costly to a business:

• Impact on sales. A sales team may be so dependent on data to do its job that a breach could mean sales goals aren’t met. That in turn affects the bottom line of the company. The longer it takes to reconstruct the data, the more money is lost.   
• Lawsuits and fines. Sometimes regulatory agencies require that certain records be kept. If a business loses that information, it could face potential fines or lawsuits. “Lawsuits and regulatory agencies can make your life a nightmare if you fail to understand, develop and follow processes that protected regulated data,” Garbus says. Customers also could sue if a system malfunction causes a business to fail to live up to a contract. 
• Ransomware. On occasion, malicious hackers infect your computers with software that blocks access to everything until you pay a ransom. “The ransoms are usually $1,000 and most companies pay the money,” Garbus says. Unfortunately, even paying a ransom is no guarantee a company’s data will be freed because on occasion the perpetrators demand even more money, she says. The situation can get even worse. “Sometimes the attacker has so completely destroyed data files and infected hard drives that they are unable to get the data back,” Garbus says. “The cost can run into thousands or even millions of dollars to get the company up and running again.”
  

“Any business that hasn’t already done so should begin a self-analysis to design data protection processes and procedures,” Garbus says. “You need to define your needs and then talk with your IT staff to ensure that the data recovery and protection strategies match those needs. “But remember that this is not an insurmountable problem. If you take the right steps you can save yourself a lot of costs and headaches down the road.”
 
About Penny Garbus
Penny Garbus, co-founder of Soaring Eagle Consulting Inc. (www.SoaringEagle.guru), is co-author of Mining New Gold – Managing Your Business Data. She has been working in the data-management field since leaving college when she worked as a data entry clerk for Pitney Bowes Credit. She later ran the training and marketing department of Northern Lights Software.

The recent suicides of iconic fashion designer Kate Spade and internationally renowned chef Anthony Bourdain renewed attention on a disturbing trend in the U.S. Deaths by suicide have been increasing across the country for almost two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC’s recent report showed that suicide rates have jumped over 30 percent in half the states since 1999. Yet many who take their own lives suffer in silence, and often there aren’t warning signs to those close to them. The CDC study reported that 54 percent of people who died by suicide had no known mental health condition, such as depression. 

Authorities on workplace culture see those numbers as further evidence that employers should prioritize mental health initiatives for their employees. “Integrating mental health and wellness practices into an organization makes a huge difference for individuals and the company as a whole,” says Kerry Alison Wekelo  (www.actualizeconsulting.com), a human resources expert and author of Culture Infusion: 9 Principles to Create and Maintain a Thriving Organizational Culture. “They know you care. As leaders are looking to improve their workplace, it’s vital to have employee mental health as a big part of the conversation. How employees feel directly impacts their contribution.”

Work is the one of the most common sources of stress, according to the American Psychological Association’s latest survey. Stress can lead to mental illness or substance abuse, which can costs employers between $79 and $105 billion annually according to the Center for Prevention and Health Services. “Unhappy people create a negative work environment, which will cost you financially in absenteeism, decreased productivity and healthcare expenses,” Wekelo says.

Wekelo lists four ways employers can increase awareness about mental health in the workplace and provide help in that regard for their employees:

• Communicate: reach out and listen. “Suffering in silence is sometimes due to the person feeling uncomfortable talking about issues or not having anyone who will listen,” Wekelo says. “Taking time to listen can lead to conflict resolution or to one’s road to recovery, and the confidence they’re not alone.”
• Encourage inspirational activity. “When faced with my own personal stress or with someone coming to me in distress, a question I ask is, ‘What are you doing that inspires you each day?’” Wekelo says. “Then I encourage making a list and completing one activity each day that the person loves.”
• Breaks: Move to improve your mood. Wekelo notes we all get in a funk at work and sometimes feel chained to our desks. “Supervisors can allow more freedom to get outside and walk off some stress, re-charge,” Wekelo says. “Movement is a real way to take care of your own well-being. It can clear your mind and spark creativity.”
• Emphasize nutrition. “Focusing on healthy, balanced food choices supports a healthy mental state,” Wekelo says. “Sometimes in stress we dive right into emotional eating - junk food that makes things worse. Have the employees ask themselves why they react to certain situations that way.”

“Employers need to realize that as much as their employees give them, they need to be there for them on a consistent basis, and not make mental health something no one wants to talk about,” Wekelo says.  
​
About Kerry Alison Wekelo
Kerry Alison Wekelo (www.actualizeconsulting.com) is managing director of human resources and operations for Actualize Consulting. She also is author of Culture Infusion: 9 Principles to Create and Maintain a Thriving Organizational Culture. Among her other accomplishments, Wekelo is a yoga teacher, life coach, award-winning author of children’s books, and the founder of Zendoway, a company that encourages holistic wellness.

When an employer shows empathy – treating employees as human beings with feelings and not just workers who help produce profit – it can make a significant difference in the workplace, studies show. How much of a difference? A 2018 State of Workplace Empathy Study by Businessolver found that 96 percent of employees surveyed believed it was important for their employers to demonstrate empathy. On the other hand, 92 percent thought empathy remains undervalued. 

And eight of 10 employees, HR professionals and CEOs agreed that an empathetic workplace has a positive impact on business performance, motivating workers and increasing productivity. It’s vital that company leaders show they care about their employees – especially when a life event, such as a family tragedy or a personal challenge, happens to the worker, says Kerry Alison Wekelo, a human resources expert and author of Culture Infusion: 9 Principles to Create and Maintain a Thriving Organizational Culture. 

“We often don't know what another person might be going through,” says Wekelo  (www.actualizeconsulting.com). “Unfortunately, part of life is crisis, challenge, and the loss of loved ones. With a focus on people first and practicing empathy, it means so much to the employee both in the immediate and in the long-term. They’ll want to work there because they feel truly cared about.” Wekelo offers four ways business leaders can show their employees that they care: 

• Cover for them. When employees have a crisis and need time away, Wekelo says, quickly and nicely assure them that they are covered and can focus on their personal situation. “This alleviates the stress of having to worry about work,” Wekelo says. “And don’t make them feel like they have to hurry back.”
• Reach out consistently and with sincerity. Consistent communication with the employee while away shows the employee you truly care. “During the life event, regularly send the employee notes or texts that you are thinking of them,” Wekelo says. “Send a personalized card, too, but the proactive, frequent communication makes all the difference. And it should continue after they return to work, which may be when they struggle most.”
• Spend one-on-one time with them. Even when things are normal in the employee’s life, sit down with them and take interest in their life outside of work. “Ask your team members how they are doing personally so they know you care more than just about their work product,” Wekelo says. “Connecting with specific examples of areas of interest aid in ensuring they know you care.”​
• Listen to them about work issues – and give them a voice.  “As a leader,” Wekelo says, “you send an important message by having an open-door policy.  Make certain your employees know they can come to talk at anytime.” That way, she says, issues will be identified and resolved, rather than building a culture that allows them to fester.”

“Empathetic behavior shows people they are being heard and therefore appreciated,” Wekelo says, “which in turn can boost morale and productivity.”
 
About Kerry Alison Wekelo
Kerry Alison Wekelo (www.actualizeconsulting.com) is managing director of human resources and operations for Actualize Consulting. She also is author of Culture Infusion: 9 Principles to Create and Maintain a Thriving Organizational Culture. Among her other accomplishments, Wekelo is a yoga teacher, life coach, award-winning author of children’s books, and the founder of Zendoway, a company that encourages holistic wellness.

The shared office space concept has risen steadily in popularity over the past decade, and by 2020 more than 26,000 co-working spaces will be in use globally, according to Small Business Labs, which tracks trends in small businesses. Those co-use office locations will be the work base for 3.8 million people – over double the number in 2017. The rapid growth of shared office space has sparked an evolution in how buildings, work environments and special features are tailored to this relatively new category of worker. 

“Shared office space can make a real difference in your career, giving you space, information, culture and connection,” says April Zimmerman Katz, president of the Zimmerman Companies, a property management company in Columbus, Ohio, and co-founder of Versa LLC (www.versa.works), a provider of shared innovative work space in Columbus. “People can find both the business and human empowerment they need through welcoming and functional workspaces with multiple resources. Collaborative spaces attract innovative and creative people looking for a unique environment.”

Katz lists four benefits workers seek in collaborative spaces:

• Cost efficiency. Buying or leasing a full or traditional office is often far more expensive than a shared office space. Monthly membership fees for shared spaces can be relatively low compared to the cost of a typical office, including furniture and other office necessities.
• Flexibility. An environment that provides enough space for both concentrating on work as well as socializing reflects a kind of “freedom” to which workers of all ages aspire, Katz says. “Spaces that break down the barrier between free time and work time provide comfort, balance, positive energy and inspiration.” 
• Connection. A shared office space opens a path to meeting new people in the professional world and networking. Many such buildings are designed with an openness, which provides an inviting atmosphere. Usually, a good number of people occupy a shared office space, and the demographics can change frequently as people come and go. “Adults tend to frequent the same places every day, namely the traditional office set-up,” Katz says. “The result is a form of isolation – from community, information and trends. A shared space community creates awareness through exposure to new connections and perspectives that benefit you and your world.”
• Empowerment. A shared office often offers extras in terms of professional, cultural and personal activities or classes. “Being part of a varied community that proposes interesting activities means members will be exposed to others’ interests, which along with discovering similarities, becomes an enriching experience,” Katz says. “You can gain significant personal improvement from expanding the normal office environment.”

“Shared office space is a more sophisticated vision of collaboration and networking,” Katz says. “You can find the ideal place to do good work, and there’s help in numerous ways to grow professionally and personally.”

​About April Zimmerman Katz
April Zimmerman Katz is owner and president of The Zimmerman Companies, which manages several multigenerational family assets. Her management company’s multifamily division oversees several Columbus communities, including The Deco, a mixed use community which opened this past summer and The Olympic Indoor Tennis Club.  Recently, Zimmerman Katz cofounded Versa LLC (www.versa.works), a provider of shared work space in Columbus, Ohio. She is the mother of five children and married to Kyle Katz, a partner in Versa and a Columbus-based real estate investor. 

Coming from a South Asian background and watching the women around me constantly be the caregivers, and having that idea drilled into my existence for a very long time, the notion of self care took ages to embrace and even enjoy. But now that I do it, I find it an immensely fruitful experience, not only putting me in a state of wellbeing but also giving me the impetus to care for others better, now that I am in a place of satisfaction with myself. I put myself first when it comes to my health so I can concentrate better on my goals personally and professionally.

I do at least three things daily that are just about me. I enjoy my morning tea or coffee minus any distractions. In fact, the husband and I use this time to talk about what we have going on for the day and what we are looking forward to.

I then read for about 15-30 minutes. Not on a device but either a magazine or a book so I am not tempted to check into my email or social media for a quick glance.

And I spend 10-15 minutes looking at my paper diary planning my day and prioritizing the five things I want to address.

Additionally, I spend 15 minutes doing stretches which are integral to my health as I do have a back injury from a few years ago that I have to pay attention to in order to avoid any future issues.

So essentially, the first hour of every day, at least during the work week, is focused on my self care and I am truly thankful for that. On a monthly basis, I ensure I head out for at least one weekend activity every week, typically a Saturday hike or a Sunday bike ride by the beach. I always make time for a monthly massage and a monthly manicure/pedicure as well. And if the month goes really well in terms of personal and professional goals, we splurge with a nice weekend away or dinner out to enjoy what we have accomplished thus far!

​What is your self care routine? 

Out of sheer frustration with having to chase payments for work long completed and submitted, and simply aghast at the prevalent issue of non-payment in the publishing and media industry, I decided to create my own digital lifestyle magazine during the holidays last year (2017).

I have so far published two digital issues and am working on my third to be released later this month. My goal is to make this an international publication, well read globally among a culture conscious and world aware audience, to increase subscriptions through the year (currently free to sign up and receive the monthly mag direct to inbox) and eventually garner advertising and sponsorship to be able to pay writers and photographers that I commission stories to.

This is ideally done by a large media and publishing conglomerate or at least a smaller team but currently I do this completely on my own – I design the magazine, I write copy and shoot images, I publish it online and promote it as well.

The primary obstacle is people wanting to benefit from my efforts but not support – friends have asked if they can write for me for free just to receive an extra byline for themselves but not necessarily ask me how they can help or spread the word to benefit my cause before they ask for something for themselves. I am more open to working with people that show an interest in my work for what it is and help increase subscriptions to benefit us both in the long run.

Another obstacle is the disbelief people express when I say I am a publisher and editor of a digital magazine since an individual owning a publication is not the norm, so showing that this is my business and not a hobby has been a roadblock. This isn’t crazy or unachievable. It's simply a matter of putting out a consistent product of quality that people will take note of and I will work on it with all my heart to make it a fruitful and life satisfying experience.