Is Doing The Right Thing Enough?

I just finished reading a wonderful book entitled Live, Learn, Lead by Don Solderquist, one of the top officers in the Wal-Mart organization for many years. Don tells of the time that another officer had somehow come into the possession of a competitor's Profit and Loss statement and had placed it on Don's desk to do with as he saw fit. Although this information could give Wal-Mart a big competitive advantage, he tossed it in the wastebasket without reading it. Although it was the ethical thing to do, Don later realized that in doing this, he had failed. He failed because he didn't tell the person who gave it to him what he had done and thus lost a chance to share a valuable lesson in integrity. Amazingly, on two other occasions Don had P&L statements similarly given to him. ( Some companies will pay big bucks for these ) The first time, one of his regional managers gave it to him and said "Look what I've found", as he presented the stack of the competitions monthly and annual performance reports. Don explained that he couldn't use them and mailed them to the president of the other company with the assurance that the reports were neither copied nor read. The president of the competing company, of course, thanked him profusely. Don explained to his regional manager why it would be unethical to use these reports. A great improvement over the first time this had happened and yet Don knew that he could have still done better. Wouldn't you know, lightning struck again. This time Don was fully prepared. He had the person who gave him the report call the president of the other company and also send the reports. The lesson about doing the right thing was much stronger to Don's subordinate because he had done it himself.

It is sometimes easier to do a right thing than it is to do THE right thing.