EthicalVoices

What do the World’s Most Ethical Companies Have in Common: Ethisphere’s Erica Salmon Byrne Answers that Question

Erica Salmon Byrne, executive director of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance, for Ethisphere, sheds insight on a number of key ethics issues for business and public relations. Specifically she addresses:
• Common characteristics of the World’s Most Ethical Companies
• Best practices in ethics training
• How to be an effective ethics counselor
• Ethics challenges we will face today and tomorrow

How One Innocent Question Can Cause A Huge Ethical Challenge – Kirk Hazlett, APR, Fellow PRSA

Joining me on this week’s Ethical Voices episode is Kirk Hazlett, APR, Fellow PRSA, an adjunct professor of communication at the University of Tampa and a PR pro with 35 years of experience with the federal government and non-profits.
Kirk provides some great advice and anecdotes including:
• How an innocent question can cause a huge ethical challenge
• Why you need to question everything
• The best ethics advice he ever received

Three Places to Find Ethics Advice: The Mirror, The Torah and Poor Word Choices – Roger Friedensen, APR

Joining me on this week’s episode is Roger Friedensen, a partner at Forge Communications, which is a research and communication strategy firm in Raleigh, North Carolina. Roger is a great PR professional and an even better guitar player.
In this interview, Roger discusses:
• When poor word choice can cause an ethics crisis
• How technology will create new ethics dilemmas
• The power of looking in the mirror
• Practical ethics advice from the Torah

Building an Ethical Team and Avoiding Unexpected Ethics Pitfalls: Steve Cody

Joining me on this week’s episode is Steve Cody, the founder and CEO of Peppercomm, a purpose-driven, strategic, integrative communications and marketing agency. Frankly, Steve is one of the most incisive and insightful PR pros I have ever met.
In this free-wheeling discussion, Steve addressed a number of key ethical issues including:
• Unexpected ethics pitfalls
• How to build an ethical team
• Where companies and agencies fail ethically
• Ethics in research
• Diversity failures

Leadership Challenges of Ethics and Intellectual Property: Elise Mitchell, APR

Joining me on this week’s episode is Elise Mitchell, the chairman of Mitchell Communications Group and CEO of the Dentsu Public Relations network. Elise is one of the most inspiring and insightful communications executives whom I have ever met and the author of a great book on leadership: Leading Through the Turn.
In a very engaging discussion, Elise highlights:
• Ethics issues with Intellectual Property
• How to avoid accidentally infringing on other companies’ IP
• Companies stealing agencies IP
• Creating a culture of try
• The best ethics advice she ever received

Unexpected Ethics Challenges With Plant Closings and Fake News: Mike McDougall, APR, Fellow PRSA

Joining me on this week’s episode of Ethical Voices is Mike McDougall, APR, Fellow PRSA, the president of McDougall Communications, and the former global vice president of corporate communications with Bausch and Lomb.
In this fascinating and practical interview, Mike provides outstanding advice for dealing with difficult issues, including:
• Unexpected issues with plant closings
• Dealing with real ‘Fake News’ issues (i.e. when your client makes things up)
• Data privacy
• The best ethics advice he ever received

How to Tell Someone They Are Being Unethical – Dave Close

Joining me on this week’s episode is Dave Close, the retired managing director of MSL Boston. I have known Dave for more than 25 years and frankly I do not know anyone who is a better example of character, ethics and compassion.

In the interview, Dave discusses a number of topics including:

How to tell a client they are being unethical
Little ethics fails: avoiding the slippery slope
Ethics challenges and new business
The best ethics advice he ever received

How to Ethically Address Harassment, Unconscious Bias and Disclosure – Joe Cohen, APR

In this week’s Ethical Voices interview, Joe Cohen, APR, CCO of AXIS Capital and President of the PRSA Foundation, shares insights and examples of a few ethical issues he faced early in his career, before he joined AXIS Capital.

Specifically, Joe discusses:

The importance of disclosure
Responding ethically when an employee is harassed
The challenges of being “Healthy”
Fighting unconscious bias

The Importance of Ethical Action Even if it Costs You Money and Business – Philip Tate

Joining me on this week’s episode of Ethical Voices is Philip Tate, APR, Fellow PRSA, a Senior Vice President with LGA in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the Southeast’s leading creative and public relations agencies.

In this week’s episode, he discusses:

His process for evaluating potential clients
How and why LGA did crisis comms pro-bono
Ethics advice for young professionals
Transparency

Best Ethics Advice of 2018

Today is New Year’s Eve. I realize many people are taking the day off of leaving early to spend time with family and friends. While Ethical Voices launched in Q4 2018, it has already reached tens of thousands of professionals and the response has been overwhelming.

So on this day as we look forward and look back, I wanted to briefly share some of the highlights of Ethical Voices 2018 – The best ethics advice and most quotable quotes from those communications and PR professionals I interviewed.

And of you like these, wait to you see what I have in store for 2019.