A new organisation hopes to close the gap on questionable corporate leadership and broken company cultures by improving ethical standards in business.
The Guild of Ethics, Culture & Leadership has been launched by Tony Beaven, a Master of Business Leadership, a Chartered Manager, and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
He says the guild isn’t a business network, but rather an order bound by values and a charter members must commit to.
He describes the guild as having three pillars:
- Accountability: Membership is not permanent; it must be lived, renewed, and proven
Tony Beaven…Looking to improve ethics leadership. - Universal: Members are united by their choice to lead ethically
- Action: Guild members are to be recognised by society as someone who has reached the pinnacle of ethical leadership
To achieve membership of the guild, applicants must complete a 25 CPD hour course. Offered online, the guild also requires annual refreshers for continued membership and retention of an online guild badge.
“Completing the route to guild membership doesn’t include placing our badge on a website forever more,” said Beaven. “The guild is the pinnacle of ethical leadership.
“While we all know of the Dixons Advisory debacle, there are advisers out there who really try to do the right thing.
…members absolutely have to do the right thing to retain membership…
“So I created this guild where members absolutely have to do the right thing to retain membership. It’s based on strong ethical values.”
Beaven also believes the current ethics exam doesn’t serve advisers as well as it should.
“The guild is for those who genuinely want to demonstrate they are ethical leaders,” he said.
“Passage to membership is a custom course because what I want to do is make sure members fully understand ethics, ethical theory, ethical decision making…All the things that this annual ethics exam is supposed to do but doesn’t.”
Beaven said those who complete the guild’s course will do more than learn “…they transform”.
He said the full course will help people influence the culture in their organisation, with the first of its three modules specifically designed for financial advisers. Part two covers leadership, and the final module helps life-long learners put their new knowledge into practice.
However, those passing module one can become a member of the guild.
Beaven said the guild is accepting members from around the world – and from a range of disciplines – adding that it’s already attracting interest from companies in both the UK and USA.
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