The 5 Questions for Ethical Decisions: How to Succeed Without Selling Your Soul
A practical guide for professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and college students who want to achieve personal success without compromising their morals
Whether in our daily work or in our personal life, even the most conscientious people with the best intentions can make ethically questionable decisions. The 5 Questions for Ethical Decisions helps you identify your own ethical “true north” and avoid the costly missteps that can betray your values, damage your relationships, and even end careers.
“A vital book that many would have thought had been written decades ago, but it has not been until now. Rather than providing scolding, sermonizing, or abstract theory, it guides readers through the regular moral dilemmas of their everyday lives, explaining how to define and deal with them pragmatically based on scholarship, consulting, practice, and personal experience.”—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Founder and CEO of Chief Executive Leadership Institute at Yale University
Find your True North… then keep it in sight
Choose and uphold your values
“The 5 Questions for Ethical Decisions serves as a valuable resource for those committed to trying to do what is right, good, and just, offering a brilliantly simple yet robust framework to decipher the complexities we face in our everyday lives. A quick and easy must-read (and reread) for any conscientious learner or current or future C-suite professional with a moral compass.”—Mark Mason Sr., Chief Financial Officer of Citigroup
Each of the book’s five chapters begins with a provocative question that illustrates a foundational aspect of ethical practice and explains how to apply these questions to define and uphold your own values. This practical yet robust framework provides a process for ethical decision-making in professional and personal matters that strengthens self-awareness, improves intentionality in decision-making, and enhances the ability to think beyond the moment in a pressure-packed, fast-paced, and rapidly changing world.
“The Enron scandal changed my life in profound ways. In every talk I give, I remind people that ethical dilemmas aren’t hypothetical—they will come, and they will test you. The 5 Questions for Ethical Decisions is a practical guide to help you prepare before that moment arrives. It’s the kind of tool I wish every leader and employee had.”—Sherron Watkins, former Vice President of Corporate Development at Enron and a Time magazine Person of the Year
“A powerful and essential read for navigating today’s complex ethical landscape. The 5 Questions for Ethical Decisions offers a thoughtful and holistic framework grounded in common sense—equipping readers with the tools needed to make decisions in their professional and personal lives that they can stand by with integrity and pride.”—Steve Reinemund, former CEO of PepsiCo and former Dean of the Wake Forest University School of Business
Stories of moral courage and success…. including yours
“Miller’s five questions provide professionals with an ethical pathway toward a productive and rewarding career, showing that there is no need to sell your soul to achieve the highest levels of success.”—Max H. Bazerman, author of Blind Spots and Inside an Academic Scandal
“It’s not if you’ll be faced with ethical dilemmas, it’s when. Use these practical strategies to manage those dilemmas. Consider it sleep insurance.”—Laura Forese, former Executive Vice President and COO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
“An engaging and tremendously wise how-to guide. Chock-full of wisdom, inspirational examples, and cautionary tales from the corporate world, this book is essential reading for current and aspiring leaders and anyone wanting to train their ethical muscles.”—Pat Gelsinger, Executive Chair and Head of Technology at Gloo and former CEO of Intel
Drawing on David W. Miller’s more than two decades of experience teaching professional responsibility and ethics to a diverse audience, including undergraduate and graduate students, entrepreneurs and young professionals, and senior executives and civic leaders, The 5 Questions for Ethical Decisions offers compelling and inspiring stories of moral courage and success, cautionary tales of ethical compromise and failure, plus end-of-chapter takeaways and exercises to help build your “ethical fitness.”
The way that courage and success look in your own life are unique to you… and this book will help you clarify and return to those definitions over and over again.
Contact Us
Interested in working together? Interested in booking a speaking engagement with David or Susan? Share your info, and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!