Does your business have moral compass? How much does it guide you as an individual? Are you able to contribute to your Business’ Moral Compass?

This week I was reminded of a very important lesson about loyalty and tough business decisions. The lesson reminded me both on a business level and on a personal level. The really tough part was that the business side was in direct conflict with the beliefs on the personal side. This is when your Personal Moral Compass tells you one thing and your Business Moral Compass may say something else. Is this acceptable because “It’s just business?” This begs the question: can there be a time when you can believe one way personally and your business self can believe another? I personally don’t think you can. For me, it is never ‘just’ business. I am too passionate and I insert too much of my personal life and personality into my business relationships to have the “it is just business” attitude. I guess my question is, am I wrong to be this personally invested in my business dealings? Is this detrimental and career limiting? I truly want some feedback on this, but I also want to share why I think this type of thinking is okay.

Below is an illustration as to why I believe why it is important to combine the SPIRIT and HEART into the ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTER. When you have a company with a single ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTER that is driven by a BUSINESS MORAL COMPASS that is a collective of the people’s moral compasses. You end up with people who are fulfilling the company vision with extreme passion and that are living up to a single outwardly visible ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTER that is clearly recognizable and known by all.

Avoiding the “it’s just business” mindset will pay off in ways that free the people within the organization to live up to set of BUSINESS MORALS that allow them to stay proud of where they work and serve a cause and believe in what they do. Or am I just naive? Tell me what you think.

Max has worked in the AV industry for over 17 years in various management and technical roles. Over the last 28 years, he has acquired an extensive background in supporting AV and IT systems, computer networks, telecom and VTC systems. Max developed one of the industry’s first networked AV solutions and that product is now deployed in a single network with over 15,000 network attached AV devices. Max has made considerable contributions to the InfoComm Education area in AV/IT and CTS preparations. He was awarded the 2010 Educator of the Year award for InfoComm and has prepared more than 1,000 candidates for their CTS exams. The views in this article are strictly the views of Max Kopsho and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer or business partners.