Leading with integrity has never been more critical. As Generation Z is poised to make up 25% of the workforce by 2025, their expectations for ethical leadership are reshaping workplace norms. This generation prioritizes transparency, fairness, and purpose, challenging organizations to rise to the occasion.

Despite this growing demand, trust in organizational leadership remains alarmingly low. Only 21% of US employees strongly trust their leaders — a decline from 24% in 2019. This erosion of trust underscores the urgent need for leadership grounded in ethics and integrity. And for consumers, much is the same. Customers, partners, and the general public are increasingly demanding that businesses operate with transparency and ethical principles. 

When organizations lead with ethics and integrity, they create true trust at an individual and organizational level — both of which can contribute to an organization’s long-term success and sustainability. Of course, the opposite can be true, too — when an organization doesn't have trustworthy leaders who act with integrity, their success can be threatened.

Ethical leadership revolves around guiding an organization with a steadfast commitment to moral principles. 

At its core, ethical leadership embodies key values such as:

Integrity and honesty: Ethical leaders demonstrate a strong moral compass, acting with authenticity, transparency, and truthfulness at all times. They "walk the talk" and lead by example.

Fairness and justice: Ethical leaders make decisions and treat stakeholders (employees, customers, partners, etc.) in an impartial, unbiased manner. They strive to ensure equitable processes and outcomes.

Empathy: Ethical leaders show genuine care and consideration for the well-being of their team, organization, and broader community. They make a conscious effort to understand different perspectives.

Principled decision-making: Ethical leaders rely on clear moral frameworks and standards to guide their choices, even when faced with complex or ambiguous situations. They always consider the broader impact of their decisions.

Accountability: Ethical leaders take responsibility for their actions and the consequences they have, both positive and negative. They're willing to admit mistakes and learn from them.

Among organizations that demonstrate this kind of ethical leadership, Patagonia — the outdoor apparel company that has long been known for its commitment to sustainability and environmental protection — stands out as an example. 

In 2011, the company famously ran a Black Friday ad with the tagline "Don't buy this jacket," encouraging customers only to purchase what they truly need — directly in line with their morals and values around overconsumption and protecting valuable resources.

Ethical leadership isn’t optional — it’s a cornerstone of organizational success. 

According to Harvard Business Review, people at high-trust companies report:

74% less stress and 106% more energy at work

50% higher productivity and 76% more engagement

29% more satisfaction and 40% less burnout than people at low-trust companies. 

Plus, ethical leadership leads to a more physiologically safe workplace where people trust their leaders and their vision, feel comfortable voicing their opinions, and will ask for support.

Here’s what this means: When organizations lead with integrity and true ethics, their employees have greater well-being, leading to more engagement and productivity — a win-win for everyone.

Top ethical challenges facing businesses today

There are plenty of obstacles that test the character and decision-making abilities of organizations’ leaders. 

Corporate social responsibility: Balancing profit motives with environmental sustainability, community impact, and fair labor practices.

Data privacy and security: Protecting customer information and using data ethically in an era of increased surveillance and targeted attacks.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Ensuring fair and unbiased treatment of internal and external stakeholders regardless of race, gender, age, or other identifying characteristics.

Conflicts of interest: Maintaining objectivity and transparency when personal, financial, or political interests intersect with business decisions.

Ethical supply chains: Ensuring products and services aren't tainted by human rights abuses, unfair labor practices, or environmental destruction further down the supply chain.

Developing ethical decision-making and a culture of integrity

Learning and Development (L&D) plays a pivotal role in shaping ethical leaders. By designing targeted programs, L&D teams can equip leaders with the tools for principled decision-making, foster moral behavior, and build a culture where integrity thrives.

Some starting areas to focus on for L&D include:

Ethics and integrity training: Providing comprehensive training on ethical frameworks, case studies, and decision-making models to help leaders recognize and navigate complex moral dilemmas.

Ethical leadership development: Designing leadership development programs that emphasize self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and the ability to role-model ethical conduct.

Speak-up culture: Implementing initiatives that encourage employees to voice concerns, ask questions, and challenge unethical practices without fear of retaliation.

Accountability: Ensuring that the organization's performance management, recognition, and consequence systems reinforce and reward ethical behavior, not just results.

Ethical risk assessment: Equipping leaders with the skills to proactively identify potential ethical risks and vulnerabilities within the business.

When creating these programs, be sure to offer leaders several different channels for learning — like blended learning, mentorship, modules, podcasts, and more — in order to increase engagement and retention. 

Building a culture of integrity across an organization

Along with offering training to leaders and employees, we’d encourage organizations to incorporate ethics and integrity into other parts of business operations. 

Consider looking deeper into these areas and processes:

Onboarding: Embedding ethics training, case studies, and discussions into the onboarding process to ensure new hires understand the company's ethical expectations from the outset. For example, you can provide real-world scenarios that challenge new employees to apply ethical reasoning.

Communications and campaigns: Launch targeted communications, awareness campaigns, and storytelling initiatives that celebrate and highlight ethical conduct within the organization. For example, you might place posters or digital displays in common areas that reinforce integrity as a core value. Some companies even display a hotline number for reporting misconduct prominently in break rooms or onboarding portals.

Performance management: Incorporating ethical considerations into performance reviews, promotion criteria, and recognition programs to incentivize and reward ethical leadership. You might offer small cash bonuses, points, or "shoutouts" at team meetings for employees who demonstrate ethical decision-making.

Culture: Collaborating with HR and compliance to establish clear, confidential channels for employees to report ethical concerns or misconduct, and providing training on how to use these mechanisms. EthicsPoint or Convercent are good examples of tools organizations can use that allow employees to report ethical issues anonymously. 

Go1 simplifies ethics training, offering accessible, high-quality content that empowers organizations to instill integrity at every level. From creating custom learning paths to accessing 100+ pre-curated playlists aligned to a broad range of skill development needs, your organization can make ethics training a simple and effective part of your everyday operations. 

Experience the future of learning with one, easy-to-integrate subscription. Schedule a demo with our team to explore Go1's innovative features and benefits.

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Leading with integrity has never been more critical. As Generation Z is poised to make up 25% of the workforce by 2025, their expectations for ethical leadership...

Leading with integrity: Why ethics matter more than ever

Ethical leadership is essential for earning trust and ensuring lasting success. Discover practical strategies to cultivate leaders who act with integrity, driving meaningful and sustainable growth.

Managing organizational change is a common challenge for leaders, especially in highly regulated industries like finance, manufacturing, and healthcare. Despite change being an essential piece of any thriving business and the majority of leaders needing to adapt their business every two to five years, only 34% of change initiatives succeed.

Changing regulations, while often seen as huge disruptors that upend current working habits, are essential to success. Beyond more mandatory changes, like staying up to date with regulations and compliance policies, the opportunity to learn at work can reduce employees’ rates of absenteeism.  

How can highly regulated industries make change not only a seamless part of their operations but a positive aspect of learning and organizational culture?

Challenges employees face in accepting regulatory changes

Change can be hard for anyone, but when it comes to business, evolving regulations and adopting new ways of work present a few major challenges. Common challenges include:

Lack of inclusivity: Despite 74% of leaders saying they involve employees in creating a change strategy, only 42% of employees report feeling included. When employees aren’t brought into the process of change in a thoughtful and intentional way, they can feel uncertain, frustrated, and forgotten.

Limited resources: Though change happens often, especially in highly regulated industries, many organizations struggle to provide the right resources for seamless and successful change. In fact, a recent survey of employees showed that 83% say they were not provided enough resources to adapt.

Few insights into progress: As seen in a recent study by CEB on change management, though change is crucial to success, 50% of leaders are unsure if recent organizational changes have succeeded, and 51% of employees, including managers, say their leaders don't outline clear success metrics for change. When employees can’t see their efforts materialized into tangible results, they’re unlikely to want to engage at all.

Time commitment: Employees are busy and compliance training can be lengthy. Given that, employees often procrastinate or avoid training altogether, leading to poor comprehension (from rushing through programs) and even learning bottlenecks.

Change fatigue: Employees may feel overwhelmed by the additional tasks and documentation required to comply with new regulations, leading to frustration and burnout that could be avoided. And in industries like finance, manufacturing, and healthcare — where teams are often burdened with hefty physical and mental work, too — additional training can be overwhelming.

By preparing employees with the right tools and training leaders to champion new initiatives, L&D teams can make change a positive part of learning and organizational culture.

One of the best ways to seamlessly and successfully implement change into organizational culture is through the use of the right resources and tools. 

When choosing L&D software to facilitate change, leaders should look for providers that offer an extensive range of courses and content that is regularly updated. Beyond that, organizational leaders should be selecting tools that allow for customized learning paths that align with specific regulatory changes and organizational goals. Plus, they should offer a variety of learning formats, like self-paced microlearning and interactive modules that make it easier for employees to fit training into their busy schedules.

L&D leaders should also choose software that integrates with various Learning Management Systems (LMS) and other HRIS platforms, making it easy to integrate existing workflows and systems. When your technology is streamlined, learning becomes a unified and consistent experience across the organization that prioritizes delivery and engagement.

If not built into any of these systems you choose or already work with, leaders should invest in progress-tracking and evaluation tools that allow them to monitor employee progress, completion rates, and engagement levels. Most learning software and content aggregators, like Go1, have this built in to make work easier and effective. Organizations can use the analysis tools to assess and verify all employees have completed necessary regulatory training, reducing the risk of non-compliance and keeping teams engaged.

For long-term success and buy-in amongst employees, team managers are the way in. L&D must ensure a close relationship with leaders and a comprehensive understanding of the new regulations. When leaders are well-informed and included in change management — from inception to deployment — they can confidently guide their teams through the transition. Let’s face it, teams are more likely to listen to their leads, than L&Ds who are often pushing training their way.

To build an effective workflow, L&D should provide people managers with a digital toolkit, including change management templates, checklists, and best practices. Likewise, they should supply leaders with a series of communication workshops focusing on crafting clear messages, active listening, and addressing concerns as they come up.

Making change a positive part of your organization

While change is often seen as a necessary evil in highly regulated industries, it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right strategy, change can become a positive part of any learning culture, in any industry.

While historically, regulation training is static and pretty boring, tools like quizzes, real-life simulations, and podcasts can make learning about changing regulations memorable — especially for those who struggle with traditional learning methods.

Go1 can help you through changing regulations

Adapting and learning about regulatory changes doesn’t have to result in change fatigue and employee frustration. With the right tools and strategy, you can make change an integral, successful part of your organization, while staying compliant.

Go1’s extensive collection of courses cover topics for even the most regulated industries. Your L&D teams can find coverage specific to financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and more, all in one subscription. Find microlearning options, immersive courses, podcasts, practice labs, or even work with our team to build out a course specific to your needs. Go1 can help any organization get up to speed seamlessly and successfully.

Plus, with partnerships with over 70 LMS and HRIS systems to deliver courses directly through existing tools, highly-regulated industries can make learning an everyday, integrated part of daily operations so everyone can learn on the go.

Ready to see Go1 in action? Book a personalized demo to discover how our platform can

Struggling with change fatigue in your regulated industry? Discover how L&D can help employees adapt to new regulations, overcome challenges, and embrace change as a positive force for organizational growth.

Overcoming change fatigue in highly regulated industries

Creating an environment that fosters effective learning can be challenging. One crucial element that often gets overlooked is the presence of and need for psychological safety. In this article, we'll recap our webinar with Kelli Frey, CPTD to learn the history and theory of psychological safety, how it translates to learning experiences, and how to measure and increase psychological safety in your organization. We'll cover a brief overview and then explain the three biggest takeaways from the webinar. 

Psychological safety is a shared belief among team members that it is safe to take interpersonal risks. This means feeling comfortable expressing ideas, asking questions, and admitting mistakes without fear of negative repercussions. When psychological safety is strong, individuals are more likely to engage in learning experiences, experiment with new ideas, and challenge the status quo, which most healthy organizations want from their employees.

In the webinar, Kelli Frey emphasized the importance of psychological safety in creating successful learning experiences, highlighting the role it plays in enabling participants to take interpersonal risks, which is crucial for effective learning. Kelli also discussed strategies that leaders and facilitators can use to build psychological safety, such as reducing unnecessary risk, recognizing power dynamics, and making group norms explicit.

Takeaway 1: Psychological safety is key to successful learning and development

Frey, an expert in facilitating learning experiences, stressed to attendees the importance of psychological safety in learning and development. She highlighted the role of this safety in enabling participants to take interpersonal risks during learning experiences, which she described as crucial for successful learning. Kelli explained that if there is no room for risk-taking and vulnerability, individuals may not fully engage in the learning experience or share their perspectives, hindering their growth and development.

It's the responsibility of leaders and facilitators to create a safe space for participants to feel comfortable taking risks and sharing their thoughts and ideas. Kelli referred to Google's Project Aristotle, which identified psychological safety as a key factor in successful team dynamics.

Frey recommends all leaders, facilitators, and trainers recognize publicly that making mistakes when learning is expected — but more on this later.

Takeaway 2: Actionable steps can be taken to build psychological safety

Leaders, trainers, and facilitators can take various actions to create an environment of psychological safety. Frey suggested reducing unnecessary risks, recognizing power dynamics, and making group norms explicit as effective strategies. Kelli emphasized that while she's seen them work globally, these strategies aren't one-size-fits-all and should be tailored to the specific culture and climate of a group or organization.

Frey further explained that recognizing power dynamics, acknowledging the implied or indirect power that exists within the group, and recognizing any team norms, can help give your employees or participants a clear understanding of group expectations.

Another actionable step is to actively model vulnerability, which Kelli explained, can help build trust and foster a sense of safety within a group. This can involve sharing personal experiences or admitting mistakes, which demonstrates to others that it's okay to do the same.

If you feel your team or facilitators model these behaviors already, the next step would be to consistently provide and seek feedback. This not only helps individuals feel heard and valued but allows for continuous improvement and growth within the group, too. Kelli emphasized the importance of recognizing and addressing any exclusionary behaviors or language that may create barriers to psychological safety, such as interrupting, talking over others, or using dismissive language, and always allowing for anonymized mediums for feedback as well.

Creating and maintaining psychological safety isn't a one-time task, but rather an ongoing process that requires continuous effort and attention. It's important for leaders and facilitators to consistently check in with group members and actively address any issues or concerns that may arise, as soon as possible.

Takeaway 3: Destigmatizing failure helps enhance a learning culture

Citing Amy Edmondson's book “The Fearless Organization,” Frey pointed out that psychological safety isn't just about physical safety, trust, and belonging but is about a shared belief within a group that it's safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Kelli stressed the crucial role of interpersonal risk in learning, explaining that there is an inherent risk of failure that's required for learning. Acknowledging failure, talking about it, and granting your team permission to fail is paramount to psychological safety. "Destigmatize failure culturally," Frey advised.

Regularly assess employee psychological safety

The benefits of psychological safety on both sides of the coin are clear. Not only will you improve employee engagement and innovation, but ultimately, your business' success. To stay on top of this, Kelli left us with some final advice:

"Regularly reassessing group dynamics and addressing any potential issues or conflicts can help maintain a culture of psychological safety," Kelli explained. "It's also important to acknowledge that building and maintaining psychological safety takes time and patience. It may not happen overnight, but with consistent effort and a willingness to listen and adapt, it can be achieved."

Psychological safety is crucial for creating an environment where employees or participants feel safe to take the necessary risks, share their wildest ideas, and be their authentic selves. By understanding psychological safety and taking actionable steps to foster it, leaders, trainers, and facilitators can create a culture of trust, open communication, and continuous growth within their teams and organizations.

Watch the full webinar to explore psychological safety in learning and development, including its history, measurement, and strategies to increase it.

Translating psychological safety for L&amp;D

For more learning and resources, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest news and tools available. Or book a demo with our team to find out how Go1 can help with your organizational learning and development needs.

Explore the key concepts and the biggest takeaways from our webinar on translating psychological safety for learning and development with Kelli Frey, CPTD.

Translating psychological safety for learning and development

We recently brought together a panel of L&D experts to discuss the evolving challenges of nurturing effective managers as well as strategies you can use to help your organization's leaders upskill. 

Moderated by Danielle Stewart, Director of Brand Advocacy at Go1, panelists included Lynne McNamee, President and Founder of Lone Armadillo Learning; Deanna Foster, Senior Director of Global Solutions at Harvard Business Publishing; and Shenlee Walker, Director of Learning and Development at Hays. Their conversation covered a wide range of topics, from the role of people managers in driving L&D initiatives to how L&D teams can ensure their leadership programs are successful.  

While the webinar produced many insightful takeaways, we've highlighted just a few below. Take a look, then watch the full webinar for even more insights. 

Takeaway 1: Leaders have a significant impact on L&D

Our panelists all agreed—leadership isn't just a title, and a people manager's role goes far beyond merely overseeing tasks. Managers lead their teams to achieve their goals and create an environment where employees feel motivated, engaged, and valued. 

"Leaders spend a lot of their time at work with their people," Shenlee reflected. "So they set the tone for engagement. They set the tone for culture. They set the tone for how people achieve results." 

Because people leaders set the stage for employees to reach their full potential, they play a key role in shaping learning culture. 

"60% of teams are focused on improving engagement within the workforce through L&D tools, communications, and learning culture," Danielle noted. People managers can use L&D to help them push their teams to be their best and stay motivated in their roles. As a result, leaders who foster a learning culture drive the success of L&D initiatives, which means it's important that we intentionally leverage managers as our L&D advocates. 

Consider engaging new people managers early on by equipping them with the tools and resources they need to help their team take advantage of L&D offerings. Make sure you communicate with people leaders when new learning is available that may be helpful to them or their team. You might also ask managers for their input and establish regular feedback loops where they can weigh in on L&D programs. By keeping people managers engaged in L&D and collaborating with them regularly, you can create a work environment where learning is top of mind. 

Takeaway 2: Leadership development should align with strategic business goals

It's important for L&D to align leadership development programs with the strategic goals of the organization. This alignment helps ensure the relevance and impact of learning programs, which makes them more appealing to both managers and executives. 

According to Deanna, prioritizing learning that aligns with business goals makes good use of managers’ limited free time. 

"There's never a shortage of skills to be developed, but we just can't afford to put more demands on people's time unless there's a direct benefit to the business priorities," Deanna stated. "When we work with our clients, we recommend that they start with the strategic pillars of their organization. What are the capabilities people need to learn to achieve the company's strategic goals?" 

Plus, business alignment is often necessary to get executives on board with new L&D programs and initiatives. 

"Executive buy-in comes from showing how learning is going to impact the business," Deanna said. "What are the executives' performance concerns? Design learning to achieve behavior change related to those concerns. That helps get their advocacy, which is ideally what you want." 

Takeaway 3: Measuring the impact of programs is key to ensuring their success 

Establishing clear measures of success is a vital step in continuing to improve your leadership development programs. According to Shenlee, it's important to identify exactly what success looks like before you launch a new learning program or initiative. If you don't know what you're measuring beforehand, it will be difficult to determine a program’s level of success after it has been launched. 

"Measuring success is multifaceted," Shenlee said. "Asking the questions upfront really can help. Without defining success and determining data points, that's going to be hard to measure." 

It's also important to be specific and pay close attention to details in order to understand what's working, what's not, and why. Lynne suggests asking questions like, what information is being measured? Who is measuring that information? Who is recording the information, and where is it being recorded? "Really just drill down on the technicalities to make sure you're really clear," she advised. 

Not sure what information about your learning program to measure? Take some inspiration from the three areas of impact Deanna’s organization measures: impact on employees, impact on employee behavior, and impact on the business. "We measure engagement—the extent to which people participated in the learning," she explained. "And we collect evidence that learners applied new skills on the job. Impact on the business is measured by our clients to determine just how far learning moved the needle." 

Watch the full webinar to learn how to market a program to people managers, incorporate learning in the flow of work, and keep your learning strategy relevant for the future. 

Upskilling your leaders into better people managers

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs. 

Did you miss our webinar on upskilling people leaders? No problem! We’ve recapped three key takeaways for you.

Webinar recap: Upskilling your leaders into better people managers

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Want to be more involved in your team's learning and development?

You can run team-wide learning programs with some internal support. Here are a few steps to help you take charge, flow through prep, browse recommended content providers, and encourage self-directed learning.

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Dedicated managers can run development programs for their teams, with some L&D support. Encourage leads to take charge, do the prep, find content providers, and encourage self-directed learning.

Starting a continuous learning plan: A guide for team leads

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