[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi everyone. The Business Ethics Leadership alliance has questions and we have answers. I'm your host, Bill Coffin. Welcome to another Bella Asks episode of the Ethicast.
The Business Ethics Leadership alliance, or bella, is a global ethics and compliance community that that provides exclusive access to helpful data, program benchmarking, roundtable events, and a resource library with hundreds of policy guidance documents, member contributed program examples, and more. One of Bella's most popular benefits is the concierge service in which members can submit any question at all regarding ethics and compliance, and our internal experts will provide an answer and helpful resources with additional information.
And while we invite everyone watching and listening to join bella, we know that there is no competition in compliance, which is why we're using this program to thematically respond to high level questions from the Bella community for the benefit of E and C teams everywhere. Joining us once again to answer those questions is Bella chair Erica Salmon Byrne. Erica, as always, it's a delight to have you back on the program.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Oh, Bill, thank you so much for having me back. It means that our members have more questions.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Well, our next question is a culture question and it feels especially relevant now. It reads, how should we drive tone at the top in today's business environment?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah, Bill, I think this is a question a lot of people are asking themselves, especially given the turbulent times that we are currently navigating as compliance and ethics leaders and as business leaders really of all stripes. So my advice to anybody listening into this that is struggling with this particular point is to go back to why should you drive tone at the top and really thinking about linking the tone at the top that you're looking to reinforce, to strengthen to the company's why itself. Because we all know that linking these kinds of things purely to but it's the right thing to do is a challenge in the best of times, and it is even more of a challenge in not the best of times. And so if you take the time to think about why you are asking your leaders to send a particular message, why you are asking your leaders to exemplify a particular form of behavior, it will be easier for you to make that argument. Because it's not something you're asking in the hypothetical, it's something you're asking in the pragmatic and in the real. So let's take for example, the conversation we've been having about the Trump administration's executive order, pausing FCPA enforcement had a lot of Bella members say to themselves and to us, what do we do in this kind of environment when one of our employees is asked for a bribe. And the fact of the matter is, is that there are very, very, very good reasons to be opposed to winning business by paying bribes that go very far beyond FCPA enforcement. It shouldn't be the case that in 2025, we are trying to motivate executives to make good decisions and to set the right tone with pictures of people in handcuffs. It's not, it didn't work then and it doesn't work now, right? So really thinking through why is this a bad idea for my business and for this group of executives, right. What is it about the long term situation we're getting ourselves into? What is it about the fact that we are now known as somebody who's willing to pay for business? Right. What are the reputational risks? What are the risks to the business? What are the financial risks that go way beyond the regulatory risks? It's an opportunity to say to yourself, really lean into the research on the financial advantage of doing things the right way and use that to drive tone at the top. Also, second point, more than ever, make it easy on your leaders.
Right? Make it easy on your leaders. Give them the words you want them to use. Weave it into existing corporate strategy. Right? Compliance, doing the right thing, integrity, the tone at the top. It shouldn't sit over here. And for those of you listening in on the audio, I've got my hands to the right side of my screen. It shouldn't sit over here while the business sits on the opposite side of the spectrum, Right. Or, you know, for those of you listening in on the audio on the left side of my screen where it, it should. They should be tied closely together. So, so look at the company's risk profile, look at the company's strategy. What kind of activities are you engaging in this year? Are you chasing mergers and acquisitions? Right. Are you launching new products? Tie the things you're asking leaders to share into those things very specifically, very pragmatically, very practically, and make it as easy as possible for them to carry your water and you will be more successful.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: You know, this is one of those things where we often talk about how important it is for ethics and compliance to have really strong relationships with sister functions throughout the course of the, you know, the organization strikes me as a, as a particular opportunity for if you've had a really strong relationship with your communications team, you know, they're the ones who are experts at speaking in your top leadership's voice and great messages that sound natural to them and it's going to make it so much easier for them to adopt those messages and to really pay them forward and to express them with full authenticity, which I think is super important in this. In this situation.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Without question. Yeah, without question. If you don't know your corporate communications team really, really well, please go fix that first before you try to focus on driving tone at the top, because everything that you're going to try to do in that regard is going to be easier. So you need to convince the executive team to carry the water and why it matters, and then you need to make it as easy as possible. And that second point is going to be infinitely smoother if you know your corporate communications team well.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Well, Erica, as always, we appreciate you weighing in on these questions from the Bella community. Thank you so much for joining us.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Oh, Bill, it's 100% my pleasure. And to all those Bella members out there listening, please keep the question coming because it gives me a chance to come back and talk to my friend Bill.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: To learn more about Bella, please Visit@the sphere.com Bella to request guest access to the member resource hub and to speak with the Bella Engagement director. And if you have a question that you would like answered on this program, contact the Bella Concierge service and we'll get to work on that for you right away. I'm Bill Coffin, and this has been another Bella Asks episode of the Ethicast. If this is your first time listening, we hope you've enjoyed the show. For more content like this every week, please subscribe here on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can also get our free weekly
[email protected] ethicast and we've got plenty more content for
[email protected] resources. Thank you so much for joining us. And until next time, remember, strong ethics is good business.
