We have news! We are very proud and excited to share with you that for the 3rd consecutive year Southern Cross Coaching & Development is a Regional Finalist for Excellence in Business Ethics in the NSW Business Chamber Excellence Awards in the North East Sydney District (international and ASX Listed companies through to sole traders can enter from the region encompassing North Sydney to the Northern Beaches to Hornsby across to Marsfield). The results will be announced on Friday 26th June at the Awards evening for North Eastern Sydney Districts which is to be held at Luna Park.
Last year we were chuffed to be contenders two years in a row, this year we’re ecstatic to have an official hat trick! Please keep your fingers crossed for us to go through to the State Finals!
We’d like to thank you for your support for us, and for your ethical standards that contribute hugely to us being able to run our business to the ethical standards we strive for. If you didn’t support us, we wouldn’t have a business to run full stop, let alone one to run ethically!
The Excellence in Business Ethics category is key and core to what we do and how we operate both within and outside of the office. It’s one of the easiest things to do but at the same time also one of the very hardest.
Easy because, well, it naturally seems the right thing to do and is how we’d ultimately like to be treated, hence we practice it and make it a habit, which makes it easier. Hard because doing things ethically is about constantly asking the question “is this the right thing to do?” and continually and persistently questioning every aspect of everything we do from motivation, process, management, teamwork, challenge (to do it, or not to do it and how to do it), communication, delivery to follow up, pricing business growth and development.
And hard also because as Stephen MR Covey says, “integrity isn’t integrity unless there’s a price”.
It’s easy to have integrity when there’s no personal/professional cost, but when there is a personal/professional cost, doing the right thing requires a lot more effort and resilience to stay on track. We’re not perfect, no-one is, we’re all human. But to be acknowledged for the hard work and effort we put in, and the results we do achieve in Business Ethics means a huge amount... It gives us that extra bit of strength and motivation to keep going when those questions are hard to answer, as they have a tendency at times to be, and when there may be a price for that integrity.
So what exactly does ‘excellence in business ethics’ mean and how are we in the running?
We also value the feedback of each individual and let them have a voice to be heard. We’ve put systems in place to ensure participants in our training programs can provide open and honest feedback about the course and our services, which we feed back to the organisation. We are open to positive feedback and also constructive feedback, and we openly ask the question “what needs improving?” We collate and then forward this verbatim to our clients, so that everything is transparent and therefore ethical. We offer a 100% money back guarantee to our clients if the client deems the organisation has not got the required outcomes from training or if the coach has not made a positive impact on a coachee (see below^ for our fair terms and conditions – no small print, just setting clear expectations).
Beyond the corporate and government business world, SCC&D actively participates in supporting the local community. Our CEO, Simon Smith, chairs a local Business Forum, a group of local business owners where admission is only through known and trusted ethical practice, as well as taking time to guide & mentor new, aspiring and growing coaches and trainers, sharing common practice to build industry best practice. Simon is also a long-term pro-bono mentor through the Australian Institute of Management scheme. Additionally, SCC&D has offered reduced cost or pro-bono assistance to organisations like Mission Australia and The Black Dog Institute, and donates regularly to charities i.e. instead of sending Christmas cards, we donate the money we would have spent to charity. Plus our staff are entitled to an annual charity day to spend time supporting a charity of their choice.
We also take conscious steps to reduce our carbon footprint through our green initiatives within the workplace and at home – for example, our entire office lighting has been transferred to LED globes or low power fluorescent tubes and nothing is left on standby once people leave the office. SCC&D staff can take up the offer of a free worm farm so that individually they can contribute to reducing the amount of land fill waste and methane production (methane is an insidious greenhouse gas 25 times worse than CO2). Southern Cross Coaching & Development are also members of the Carbon Reduction Institute and at every possible opportunity we purchase office supplies that are recycled or environment-friendly. And nearly everything in the office that can be recycled is recycled!
We’re proud of what we do and we’ve always worked hard to do our human best to walk our talk and live that integrity. We’ve always strived to do what we say we will, listen, talk straight, be honest and do the right thing by our staff, consultants, clients, the community and the environment as our primary drivers, trusting that business and revenue will follow. And we’d like to thank you for your support of our business that has allowed us to continue
We’re all looking forward to the night out and to celebrate regardless of the outcome.
^ 100% MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE^
A 100% money-back guarantee applies to each individual facilitation, coaching and training program. The cost of an individual’s coaching program will be refunded in full if the sponsoring key stakeholder or the individual coachee does not feel the coach has made a positive impact. Regarding Facilitation, Team Coaching andTraining programs, the cost of an individual’s training, coaching or facilitation program will be refunded if the organisation deems it has not got the required outcomes for that particular individual.
All we ask is that the coaching or training was undertaken voluntarily (you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink - if someone doesn’t want to change, not even we can make them, although we give it a good go and have done so on many occasions!), SCC&D’s invoice was paid within 30 days of date of invoice, and providing the participant and organisation’s key stakeholder(s) invoking the money-back guarantee agree to give SCC&D in-depth constructive feedback as to why they each felt the respective program was not successful and how things might be constructively changed in the future.