Episode Notes

Where there is a business, there are humans. Where there are humans, there are needs. Where there are needs, there are opportunities to meet those human needs. When we neglect meeting human needs, humans get off track and fall out of integrity.

Business records can help us maintain integrity in how we do business if we intend to operate a business with integrity. I have teased the content into bite-sized, digestible parts to support your journey to using the following six ways to ensure integrity in your business records.

Summary

Last week I outlined the first three ways to ensure integrity in your business records, starting with you. Today you will learn the 4^th  way to ensure integrity in your business records after summarizing the first three.

Business records build confidence and trust within the business, customers, and communities. Business records also help us track where we have been, where we are, and where we are going, and they can save us thousands and millions of dollars. According to Wikipedia, “business records are documents (hard copy or digital) that capture an act, condition, or event related to the business.”

Building confidence and trust in business starts with the business owner(s) and entrepreneurial leader. This is why the #1 way to ensure integrity with business records is to do a self-leadership integrity assessment. Answer these questions:

• What are my core values? What are my business’s core values and mission?
• Am I willing to live according to my core values and meet my seven universal human needs of physical well-being, honesty, play, peace, autonomy, meaning, and connection?
• Do I have a path to get back on track when I run a relationship in the ditch?
• What about those I employ and contract? Can I create a path to help them get back on track?
• Am I open to course corrections, making amends, and doing better?
• If the answer to all of the questions above, except the first one, is yes, you can live and lead with integrity. Go on to #2. If your answer is no, find a way to answer yes, then proceed. If you need help, reach out to me.

The 2^nd way to ensure integrity in your business records is to set high communication and accountability standards by requiring everyone to take 100% responsibility for what they think, feel, say, and do. This sets the tone letting everyone know that mistakes happen. What we do after making a mistake is the focus—taking responsibility for fixing the error, learning from the mistake, or finding a different solution. New ideas can come from mistakes, so train people to look at mistakes as opportunities for personal and business growth.

• Start regular accountability meetings that promote mutual respect and mutual purpose with who does what, when, and by when with a follow-up. Brainstorm potential barriers to deadlines and commitments and instill natural consequences if responsibilities aren’t fulfilled.

The 3^rd way is to build an ethical organization around information and communication. Modify your mindset and know the purpose of documenting the act, condition, or business event. Because the act, condition, or business event needing documentation doesn’t always generate income, business owners can get sloppy running their businesses, leading to problems with the IRS, cashflow issues, data entry, employee problems, legal issues, etc.

I appreciate management guru Peter F. Drucker’s pragmatic approach to improving work relationships. Instead of building in layers of hierarchy, which promotes disconnection, Peter found that the most important thing to do is to create an organization, whatever the size, around information and communication. You can do this by training people to ask two questions. I added a third question.

1. 1. What information do I need to do my job – from whom, when, and how?
   2. What information do I owe others so that they can do their job, in what form, and when?
   3. To build mutual trust (mutual understanding and predictability), include others in accountability. If there is a breakdown in A and B, invite those involved in the communication breakdown to help hold each other accountable. Use direct communication to identify where the breakdown started and brainstorm how to fix or amend the problem. Agree on a path forward that promotes responsibility and accountability.

How to Implement #1, #2, and #3

Let’s say you have checked all the boxes for #1 above. You are leading with integrity a business that employs 25 or fewer people. Where do you start with setting high standards for communication and helping everyone take 100% responsibility for what they think, feel, say, and do?

• Invest an hour in revisiting your business mission and core values with your team (25 or fewer employees). Take notes from the input and feedback you gather—share where you would like to be at this year’s end and your plans for getting there. You may want to increase revenue by 10% or 30%, or 50% based on revenues generated so far this year. Layout the most-likely case scenario and let them know if everything goes to hell in a handbag, where they will be at the end of the year. Reinforce that you are in this together and can grow the business by working together.
• Implement #3 by discussing ethics and how to behave ethically as a team in their daily work. Start regular accountability meetings to sort out what information employees need to do their job and what information and communication they need from co-workers to do their work that day or for the week. Have them brainstorm the outcomes if they do or don’t meet the work deadlines and how they plan to hold themselves and each other accountable for goal achievement.
• Secure the integrity of physical and logical (human) data by setting up rules and procedures. In your regular accountability meetings, discuss the 4th way to ensure integrity with your business records. Remember to follow up with essential items you discuss and notice if the meeting tasks are formal or casual. Formal things need to follow through.