Why
we are concerned, and why the time to do something about it
is now
Every society has its own customs. The mores
of a culture determine what is socially accepted and what
is not. Traditionally, stealing, dishonesty and disrespect
toward elders were socially disapproved in Native American
culture. In 2006, Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. conducted a
survey of tribal leaders around the nation. According to
the survey, either the mores in Indian country have changed
or we are accepting an unusual amount of ethical violations
being tolerated.
In 2006, our company conducted surveys on two reservations
in North Dakota. To supplement our results, we emailed
surveys to tribal leaders around the country. Our responses
all came from enrolled tribal members in leadership or
management positions, including high levels of tribal
administration and members of governing boards. We made a
number of interesting discoveries. Notice we said
interesting, not good.You can read all about the survey in
the Virtual Library.
Speaking of reading, we highly recommend this book,
The Genius of Sitting Bull, to aspiring managers.
We will refer to it several times in this workshop. Sitting
Bull had several characteristics of effective leaders
– commitment and integrity being two primary ones.
The author says,
"Sitting
Bull’s contemporaries, both friends and foes,
respected his integrity. He understood the legitimizing
force of integrity and established an uncompromising
ethical code of cooperation and trust among his people. The
Sioux in 1876, just as Americans today, could not afford to
follow liars, thieves, and fakers."
If you don't come to work until 10 a.m. every day, but you
are charging the tribe for forty hours of work, then you
are taking money from the tribe you didn't earn. If you
hire your nephew when a much more qualified person applied
for the same job, you are not showing a commitment to your
tribal organization that is paying you. If you don't show
that commitment, how can you expect your employees to do
their very best?