Several years back when I was President of the New Mexico State Bar I was speaking to a group of a few hundred lawyers at a conference and I asked the group the question, “How many of you in this room are unethical?” Not a hand went up. Good...I thought.
I pulled up short of asking the next question, “How many of you in this room know an attorney who is unethical?” My guess is that almost every hand in the room would be raised. Maybe a better follow up question would be “How many of you in this room know an unethical attorney who is in this room?” My guess is that there would be some hands that were raised, but not a forest of hands like the prior question.
Now, I am picking on attorneys because I am one, but these questions could be asked of members of any profession. Each profession has good apples and bad apples. No profession is immune to unethical people entering into it. And each profession struggles with ethics.
It is so much easier to talk about others’ ethics than to examine your own.
My point is that we use different standards to measure others than we do to measure ourselves. This is an interesting paradox to me.
Several years ago I bought a book by John Maxwell entitled “Ethics 101, What Every Leader Needs to Know” The book is packed with good information regarding ethical issues. Many of the quotes in this column are from the small book.
Dr. Maxwell states the problem is that ethics is never a business issue or a social issue or a political issue. It is always a personal issue. Amen! I agree with Dr. Maxwell, ethics is always a personal issue. Individuals who are ethical in their daily lives will likely be ethical at work or in other aspects of their lives.
I have said many times, the way to improve any profession is to get good people to enter it. Much of the rest will take care of itself. But if bad people enter any profession, the profession’s bar will be lowered. Reprogramming bad people into good people once they have entered your profession is a very difficult task and can be next to impossible.
It is interesting that people say they want integrity, but they don’t always act with integrity themselves. In the workplace 43% of people admit to having engaged in at least one unethical act in the last year and 75% have observed such an act and done nothing about it. Dr. Maxwell shares, “The same person who cheats on his taxes or steals office supplies wants honesty and integrity from the corporation whose stock he buys, the politician he votes for, and the client he deals with in his own business.”
We are moving into the field of judging others. My favorite concept on judging others is “We judge others by their actions, we judge ourselves by our intentions.” These are two vastly different scales: others and ourselves. Hence the question, “Are you talking about your ethics or mine?”
There are many definitions of ethics. I like the definition by The Josephson Institute of Ethics, “Ethics is about how we meet the challenge of doing the right thing when that will cost more than we want to pay.” I remember a law school professor telling our class one day “Anyone can be ethical for a dime!” His point was well made. I guess the true test of ethics would be when a large reward lays in front of you and you get to elect whether to step over the ethics line and take the reward or to hold firm to solid ethics and pass the reward by.
Dr. Maxwell in his book writes “I believe there are two paths to achievement a person can choose. You can go for the gold, or you can go for the golden rule.” The core of his book is that the ultimate test for ethics is the golden rule. It doesn’t matter in what country you live or what profession you are in, if you always do unto others what you would want done unto you, you will be an ethical person.
Jim Blanchard said, “If we had only one rule in this company, it would be the golden rule. If we’ve got that one right, no other rules are necessary.”
How do we learn ethics? It begins with the family you grow up in. I know many parents who did not truly feel accountable for their actions until they had little eyes watching them. Having children sheds a whole new light on the world.
I also think that we transpose who we are on others. For example, hurting people hurt people. Or people with good attitudes are apt to see people they interact with as having good attitudes. In other words, I think people who are unethical are more likely to look for and accuse others of being unethical. That is just the way they see the world.
I like this quote from Wolf J. Rinke, “If you mistrust your employees, you’ll be right 3 percent of the time. If you trust people until they give you a reason not to, you’ll be right 97 percent of the time.” Your world view is imposed on others.
Dr. Maxwell says “There are really only two important points when it comes to ethics. The first is a standard to follow. The second is the will to follow it.” I have to believe that the average person out there knows right from wrong and knows what is ethical from what is not. Although two people can argue over exactly where the line of ethics falls, I think most everyone has a line they don’t believe they should cross.
Often we ask the question to ourselves, “is this ethical?” Usually when we ask that question we already know the answer. The question isn’t “is it ethical or not?,” the question is “am I going to be ethical or not?.”
I think the struggle we have as humans is the will or the discipline to follow ethical practices. With knowledge of what is ethical and the will to make ethical decisions, success in our daily lives will follow.
My challenge to you today is to make ethical decisions in each decision you make. You can’t change any of the past ethical dilemmas you have experienced, but you will have countless ethical decisions ahead. I believe you can distinguish between what is ethical and what isn’t.
When you come to the crossroads on an ethical issue, my prayer for you is that you have the discipline and will to make the right decision.
Just a thought...
Rick Kraft is a motivational speaker, a syndicated columnist, a published author, and an attorney. To submit comments, contributions, or ideas, e-mail to rkraft@kraftlawfirm.org or write to P.O. Box 850, Roswell, New Mexico, 88202 - 0850.
