Ethics on the job still count. Honest.

Dear Coach:


I’m almost finished my business degree but I’m getting cold feet about applying for a job. It seems like stories about corporate corruption are in the headlines all the time. Do ethics even matter in the workplace anymore?

Considering a Desert Island

Dear Considering:

We may not be able to abolish insider trading and corruption on the grand scale, but your own code of conduct does matter. In fact, it is one of the most important “job skills” you bring to the table.

Your personal code of ethics affects how both your superiors and subordinates view you. It is a factor in whether you will advance and how far you will go. It determines the very nature of your relationships at work, where you will be spending many of your waking hours. Most important, it determines how you feel about yourself. Self-respect comes from knowing the principles you’ve agreed to live by. Having these principles in place lets you spend less physic energy on regrets and unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships. In fact, I view a personal code of ethics as one of the most important components of a successful career.

Think about someone you really admire. While you might observe some traits they were born with – like an agreeable temperament, good looks, intelligence – your admiration probably is the result of acquired traits like integrity and consistency of character.

For example, one of the people I admired most during my career consistently demonstrated her own sense of integrity. This consistency was important. It allowed those around her to know what to expect in their interactions with her and allowed them to build up trust in her. Here is what they could count on:

* She backed her employees and took responsibility, as their manager, for their performance, even their errors.
* She praised her employees in public and criticized them only in private and in person.
* She understood that great gains and innovations are based on taking calculated risks. She didn’t punish those who risked and failed.
* She meant what she said and stood by her words.
* She didn’t back away from tough decisions or giving necessary negative feedback.
* She didn’t take credit for other people’s work.
* She didn’t gossip about others’ shortcomings.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one who noticed her character. She quickly gained a reputation as a leader in her field, not only because she was talented but because she had the respect of both her colleagues and her clients.

You may be thinking, “This woman sounds like Mother Theresa.” Not really. She started out with a few strongly-held principles -- like taking responsibility for her mistakes and not gossiping (a big temptation in the workplace). Over the years some principles got added, deleted and modified along the way, as she learned more about interacting in the workplace. “In the beginning I didn’t have enough confidence to give my employees negative feedback”, she told me. “I was trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings. But I came to understand that glossing over problems was really a form of dishonesty. Now, I tell a staff member if there has been a problem so he or she can learn from it. I’ve found it’s easier on all of us to tell them what I really think.”

Even in a job interview, your code of ethics is on display. Many of your responses to an interviewer’s questions will spring from your own views about what is right and wrong. If you have thought through how you want to relate to others, you will inevitably convey a sense of integrity and stability. If, for example, your ethics run along the line of the woman I just mentioned, you wouldn’t exaggerate your accomplishments, though you would state clearly what you bring to the table. You also wouldn’t badmouth former bosses, colleagues or companies.

Just as you are the one who needs to choose your career focus, you are also the only one who can choose your values. Introspection, including thinking about the values of those you are acquainted with, life experiences, and reading books about philosophy or about people you admire are some of the ways for developing your personal values.