Execs take ethics lessons to schools

40 business leaders discuss leadership values with students

Damon Barry, senior counsel for Arapahoe County-based CSG Systems, stood, not before his typical audience of dark-suited executives, but before the jeans-wearing teens of Shaun Seaholm’s contemporary issues class at Denver’s East High School.

By Todd Neff, Special To The Rocky Mountain News

Though Barry left his lawyerly grammar at the office, his message on the importance of ethics in business and in life would apply equally to both audiences.

"It’s easy to have the right ethics when things are going good," Barry told the class. "But what happens when things get tight? How do you perform then?"

Barry, a Northglenn High School graduate, was one of 40 local executives speaking to classrooms at 20 high schools as part of Rocky Mountain Junior Achievement’s "Capitalism with a Conscience" program Tuesday and Wednesday.

In the wake of Enron, Arthur Andersen and other corporate scandals, the program was designed to heighten understanding of ethical leadership as it applies to students’ personal and professional lives.

At East High, five executives fanned out to separate classrooms: Barry; Cynthia Evans, Xcel Energy’s vice president for Colorado and Wyoming; Scott Bemis, publisher of the Denver Business Journal; Don Holmes, president of Marsh Inc. Denver; and Sanford Rothe, managing partner of De- loitte & Touche in Denver.

"We want to stress ethics and get executives into communities and schools and show the ethical dilemmas and challenges they face very day," Rothe said.

In the classrooms, the visitors took different approaches.

Evans took the lead of a guide provided by Junior Achievement, which helped students in Beth -Hinz’s freshman American government class identify ethical vs. unethical behavior using, among other means, role models from either extreme: Gandhi and Richard Nixon. "That’s how ethical leaders lead," she said, referring to Gandhi. "They have a set of values they believe in strongly and they live their lives that way."

She reminded students that the American free-enterprise system was built on a foundation of ethical behavior. If you can’t count on mutual fairness, she said, "We’d have hundreds of times the number of police and lawyers we have now."

Up the hallway in Sean Munkacsi’s geography class, Holmes reminded students that ethical behavior can be a foundation for personal advancement. "Think of Jesse Ventura. He wasn’t a Democrat or a Republican. He was a wrestler who even showed up in the movie Predator. Is he the smartest guy in the world?" he asked the class.

"No," answered a chorus.

"But he shows real leadership by taking a stand and not wavering, even if he’s criticized by people," Holmes said.

Barry brought an ethical dilemma home. "Say your parents tell you not to go to a party," he said. "And your friends say, ‘Dog, you a punk. What are you doing? Let’s roll!’ "

The students seemed to respond. "You’ve got to stay on the good side," said sophomore James Owens.

Freshman Cecile Perrin said, "Throughout life you have to make the right decisions."

Teacher Hinz said Xcel’s Evans had taught her something, as well. "I learned that I need to listen to my students more. They had good thoughts on the qualities of what makes good leaders."

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_1771245,00.html