Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

For 20 months, former Senate majority leader George Mitchell headed the investigation into steroid or other performance-enhancing drug use in Major League Baseball. That report is set to be released on December 13, at a news conference scheduled for 2 p.m. EST.

Reports are anywhere from 50 to 80 former and current players will be named in the investigation, with a number of them being some big names.

What this means is the use of steroids is rampant in Major League Baseball. To me it's the equivalent of business leaders fudging numbers in order to make short-term results better than they are. The problem is, these types of people hurt the overall image of others in the industry that have honesty and integrity.

It's one thing to become excellent at what we're doing, and to be recognized for it by those who appreciate what it took to get there. On the other hand, to use a substance or any other illegal or banned means of gaining an advantage, is not only in poor taste, but it harms any field we serve in.

In the case of Major League Baseball, what will they do to ensure fans and followers that those out on the playing field are all on ... well, an even playing field?

Part of this is the fault of Major League Baseball itself. To take advantage of Barry Bonds pursuing the all-time Major League Baseball record for home runs over a career, they basically ignored the reality that he had been using banned substances to achieve the record, in order to get the media attention they wanted. So what is baseball going to do now, take the record away?

Even Hank Aaron, the "former" record holder, had to be privately persuaded to say something positive about Bonds' accomplishment. Aaron knew how he had done it.

We can't be so enamored with success and fear failure that we enter into behaviors that can bring an entire industry to its knees. Baseball is going to be harmed tremendously from what has went on here, and they probably deserve it for not taking a much stronger stand on the subject.

For business leaders, we must resist the pressures on us to do "anything" to get results. It's better to fail doing our best, than to do illegal and deceptive actions to make it look like we outperformed our competitors. Sooner or later whatever we do will come to light. It's far better for it to be good actions, than actions that bring shame to ourselves and the people we work with.