Ethics - What Are Yours?

We were asked to write an essay on ethics for class. Since this topic is especially close to my heart, and I want to consistently show my authentic self, I thought I'd share my views here:

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Ethics – what are yours?

Ethics are a set of moral principles, values or standards and are, in large part, what influence others in their decision around doing business with you or engaging in any type of relationship with you at all. Your ethics are a moral compass, defined in part by society, your religion, and beliefs that are formed from diverse backgrounds. But that moral compass is primarily defined from an instinctive sense of knowing “right” from “wrong”. Your morals or standards, like valuing others opinions or operating from a place of integrity, shape how others view you and help them decide whether they can trust you.

Your ethics reveal your view of the world and your place in it. Are you here to take, destroy, cheat, look out for “Number One” or are you here to make a positive difference, serve others and be worthy of another’s trust?

As a business owner, I never want my clients to doubt me or question my integrity. I hope that anyone I encounter, whether they are a friend, family or potential client, will see that my words and actions match up, and as both a fellow human being and business owner, I will treat them fairly and look after their best interests.

I believe the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” best describes my ethics … almost. What I would add is “Do better” or “Do more” for others as you would have them do for or treat you. It’s a concept that goes back to the 1950s or ‘60s, when neighbors socialized with each other rather than pulling their vehicle into this large box we call a garage and spend the rest of each evening in a larger box we call a home. During this time when people didn’t hide in their homes or behind technology, they reached out and helped each other. Neighbors looked after neighbors, cooked meals, mowed the elderly neighbor’s lawn or shoveled snow from their sidewalks (to be helpful, not in looking for something in return). It was also a common standard to leave a park or place to visit in better condition than you found it and return a borrowed item with a full tank of gas, sparkling clean, or whatever it means to have it returned in better condition than when one borrowed it. People showed appreciation for each other and what each had to offer. People showed genuine concern for each other and backed up their words of kindness with action, often anonymously. There’s a place for being acknowledged and being shown appreciation, and a place for quiet action, knowing full well that if anyone notices, they still may not recognize your effort. So I believe one should serve your immediate community without expectation, and I believe that when other’s trust you with something from a borrowed book to their heart, it is our responsibility to take good care of what other’s entrust us with, leaving it in better condition than when it was given to us.

The ethics and standards that show your true character is witnessed by what you do when you think no one is watching. Is your public and private self in alignment with each other? Would your private self steal the hotel room bathrobe if you thought you could get away with it or would your moral compass keep you from even wanting to do something that would be costly to someone else? What if God Himself turned a blind eye to something you were thinking of doing that felt wrong; would you pursue it? My ethics are guided by what some people call a conscience, others call our “wise self” and others would describe as the Holy Spirit convicting me to turn from a dishonest or destructive path. The thought of God’s forgiveness brings comfort, however, I’d rather God smile at me and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”, than to have to go to Him humbled and hurt and having a light shone on something that I shouldn’t have done in the first place. God is watching, and I so very much want His approval. I don’t want to disappoint Him and he has generously wired me to know when I’m not doing what’s right in His eyes. I have a set standard for how I treat others, including things like not interrupting, being respectful, and being honest and fair that I naturally follow. But when I’m tempted to do something out of anger or spite that goes against my natural instinct, that’s when I remind myself that I’m always being watched. God is watching and if I begin to have thoughts of crossing some moral line that my own character allowed to continue (like slandering a former client whose behavior was unethical), then I have that second checkpoint to help guide me back to what’s right. Besides “The Golden Rule” there’s another cliché that describes my ethics – “Two wrongs don’t make a right”.

I want to speak to you in my voice when explaining my ethics, however, in doing so I think it’s appropriate to include some quotes as they do speak to my beliefs:

- Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln

- To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one's own, is ever the beginning of one's real ethical development. ~ Felix Adler

- The act of acting morally is behaving as if everything we do matters. ~ Gloria Steinem

- Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. ~ Plato

- The meaning of good and bad, of better and worse, is simply helping or hurting. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

-All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy. ~ Scott Alexander

In closing, we all have our own moral compass. What feels wrong to me may seem perfectly normal to the majority of our society. What ethics isn’t, however, is doing the right thing for the wrong reason. If you’re doing something because someone says you should and you see that most people believe it to be a “good thing”, but you don’t feel in your heart that it is necessary to clean up the messy microwave that your spaghetti exploded in and you are resistant to doing “what’s right”, then you don’t share the same ethical standard as your co-workers. Many people can agree on what it means to be courteous, but personal ethics can be vastly different.