ETHICS
Defined as ‘moral principles or ideals or values that govern a person’s behavior’,
What Jill had to say at the Greater Phoenix Area Better Business Bureau Ethics Symposium:
Discussions on the topic of ethics often bring up pride and confidence, most people feel good about doing the right thing. So when I recently was invited to participate on the panel at the Arizona Better Business Bureau’s third annual Ethics Symposium, I thought long and hard about my answers to their speaker prep questions. I wanted to provide interesting information and insight on what and how ethics plays a role in my academy, especially since we won the BBB Torch Awards in 2015. So anyhow, I prepared my thoughts and a few of them could be worth sharing.
How do you encourage a positive environment?
Ahhhhhhh I got this one. Of all the things I don’t do well or don’t enjoy doing (think financial planning), I totally got this one – CELEBRATIONS. At Penrose Academy, we celebrate. Practically all the time. Certainly every Thursday. Each staff meeting. Very publicly. And it causes many of my graduates to fondly remember their time on campus as one that changed them and allowed them to become who they are trying to be.
Saying out loud and on purpose what another person has done is a meaningful way to encourage camaraderie and build more enhanced relationships. And for ten years, Penrose Academy has celebrated our student body and faculty making our campus one that encourages connection, loyalty, brings out the best in others and is full of happy energy.
How does your team know your position on being an ethical school?
They know because we talk about it all the time! Every hour, every day. We are constantly discussing what to do and what to do means what is the right thing to do. So there is no grey. If the grey exists, we investigate and research and find a way to stay strong rule-followers. I think when I follow the right path and make fair and honest decisions, it allows my team to trust me.
Can you give a few examples of how Penrose Academy raised the bar in your industry through ethical policies and procedures?
This one is maybe my favorite question to answer because I get to brag about my customers – my students. And I get to do that because ten years ago when we opened, we set a ridiculously high attendance percentage. At clock hour schools, students attend rigorous schedules (unlike credit hour schools). And we set the expectation at 95% attendance. If I asked ten other cosmetology school owners, the average tends be about 75%. Which is ridiculous. Employers would never allow that performance, so if I am training students for the real world and for a long term career, paid for with tax payers money, I sure as heck better provide what the employer or customer needs. I had two students celebrate in our last all school assembly that when they previously attended a state university in town where they spent three years and attended five classes. Can I say that again. They were enrolled at this extremely large university and went to class five times in three years. Admittedly, it was their bad choice to attend that school and it is a bad attendance expectation for that school to have none. Fast forward, they withdraw, soul search and then found their way to our creative campus where we teach technical skills alongside a business curriculum, and guess what? They thrived – I mean attended every single day. Like exploded into their best; more confident, enhanced skill set, great problem solvers and even became a role model for others. And they graduated on time and bursting with pride.
So even though the way we raised the bar was attendance, a very unglamorous answer, it proves that expecting the very best from people and setting the bar higher than is comfortable, allows most people, certainly my students, to reach higher and push themselves to become the best version of themselves.
And I am alongside them cheering all the way.