When I was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, we took the concept of honor pretty seriously. Later, as a professor at the US Air Force Academy, we also thought honor was pretty important, and discussed the concept a lot with cadets before they went off to be Air Force lieutenants. One of the key questions of those discussions was “what is honor?”, and if you are going to be an ethical leader, it’s a question you should consider, too.

Over the years I have heard many different descriptions of honor, but there is one that has always stuck with me: honor is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. It is doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing, not because you are afraid you will get caught or you are weighing the potential punishment against the potential gain. If you do the right thing only because it’s convenient, not because it’s right, then you are not really acting honorably…you are just being efficient.

Why does this matter? Well, your employees need to know whether or not they can trust you, and they only know that through your actions; you can say “trust me” all you want, but if you don’t act trustworthy, then forget it. Trust is essential in any business because it makes things easier, smoothing the way for your work. With trust you need less oversight, and there is less time spent double-checking things. You create less drama, so people can focus on their work rather than on the rumor of the day. If your employees know you will be transparent with them about changes in the business, they will not have to worry about whether or not their job is in danger because of things they don’t know. Trust is essential, and you have to earn it for yourself and create a climate in which your employees trust you, and each other.

So, develop a set of ethics for yourself, and then live by them. Ideally, you have done this already, but if you haven’t, then now is the time. Think about what you would need from someone else in order for you to trust them, and use that as a guide. Ask yourself if you are expecting others to act differently toward you than you act toward them, and if so, think about why that is.

If you do the right thing when no one is watching then you will be doing the right thing when someone IS watching and you didn’t realize it. A friend of mine was concerned one time when checking something on Facebook after a very fun weekend, saying “I don’t need to be in a video dancing shirtless at a club”…and, after a pause, he said “so maybe I shouldn’t be dancing shirtless at a club.” If you figure out how you want to conduct yourself and get into the habit of doing it all the time, you never need to worry about whether anyone’s watching or not…you’ll be doing the right thing either way.