The Ethical Leader

A recent poll found that only 38% of Americans believe all three attempts on President Trump’s life were genuine.

Set aside the politics. That number is telling you something important.

Every compliance program is struggling to demonstrate the effectiveness of its employee training. By effectiveness, I mean that the training changed employee behavior.

The struggle comes from two places.

First, there is no baseline. Most teams start measuring after the training has already been delivered, with nothing to compare against.

Your insider trading policy probably covers securities.

Does it cover a $500 bet on whether your company will close a major acquisition by year-end?

Prediction markets — platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket — now offer contracts on events like product launches, earnings results, regulatory approvals, and M&A activity. Anyone with access to material non...

I knew what was important to my boss because she would often talk about it.

And it was important to her because her boss talked about it.

If I failed to talk about it with my direct reports, the chain was broken.

It’s a weakness of the “tone at the top” approach. If one manager breaks the chain, some of the front-line employees don’t get the mess...

A good way to build a personal brand online is to create long-form content on a regular basis, and then splice it and repurpose the shorter pieces on LinkedIn, X, Tick-Tock, etc.

The same principle applies with ethics and compliance messaging. During the year, you’ll update your code of conduct and a few policies – your long-form content. Then you can create micro-m...