It never ceases to amaze me how unethical people have a total blindness when it comes to their own ethics – or lack thereof. If it were not appalling, it would be screamingly funny how corrupt, unethical people see themselves as paragons of virtue while they continue to engage in fraudulent and criminal activities.
Nobody thinks they’re a crook. They’re all – in their own eyes – upright citizens going about doing an honest day’s work. The allegations levelled at them are all lies or misunderstandings.
Consider those brought before a court of law with damning evidence against them. How do they plead? “NOT GUILTY!” comes the confident and impassioned reply.
As an aside, a caller once phoned in to a KZN radio station (I was driving from King Shaka airport into Durban to conduct a training programme) to ask why, if a person pleaded not guilty and was subsequently found guilty, they could not be charged with contempt of court or something else for knowingly lying to the court when pleading not guilty. Interesting question, I thought.
But it’s not about what people say. It’s about what people do that reveals their ethics or lack thereof.
A lack of ethics is not only revealed by fraudulent and criminal activities. It’s also revealed in the simplest of ways – like the way someone fails to pay a person or company who has provided a particular service to them.
So, if you’re brave enough to do a self-check on your own ethics, look no further than how promptly you pay people who have provided a service to you, whether in your personal or your professional capacity.
It’s how you handle your money that reveals your ethics. And when I refer to handling your money, I’m referring more to how you hand out money rather than how you receive money. Nobody has a problem receiving money. It’s when they have to let go of it that they show what their ethics are made of.
So how do you pay suppliers? Do you try and stall them as long as you can or look for excuses not to pay because you’re reluctant to part with money for a service they provided to you? If so, face it – you’re unethical.
On the other hand, if you pay them promptly on completion of their work or as agreed, simple – you’re ethical!
I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again … Money doesn’t corrupt people. Money simply reveals character.
If therefore you want to assess people’s ethics, don’t pay so much attention to what they say – talk is cheap. Watch very carefully what they do or don’t do. The old saying that “actions speak louder than words” is still valid.
With ethics and integrity rapidly becoming redundant in a “winner takes all” world, there is a desperate need for leaders who are ethical and who act with integrity. Another way of describing integrity is: doing the right thing even when no-one’s watching. Ethical people will therefore make prompt payments even though no-one else knows or sees what they’re doing. They act in an ethical manner not because they might get found out if they don’t. They act in an ethical manner because that’s who they are.
If you’re a leader, I urge you to make a conscious effort to conduct your personal and professional lives with ethics and integrity. Don’t do one thing where people can see you and another when you think they can’t.
Apart from integrity referring to having a sound moral character, it also refers to wholeness. And it’s that wholeness that causes a person with integrity to conduct themselves in an ethical manner regardless of the circumstances.
Unethical people think they’re very smart. They’re not. They’re fooling themselves. It’s the ethical people who are really the smart ones!
Alan Hosking is the Publisher of HR Future magazine, www.hrfuture.net and @HRFuturemag. He is an internationally recognised authority on leadership competencies for the future and teaches experienced and younger business leaders how to lead with empathy, compassion, integrity, purpose and agility. He has been an Age Management Coach for two decades. In 2018, he was named by US-based web site Disruptordaily.com as one of the “Top 25 Future of Work Influencers to Follow on Twitter“. In 2020, he was named one of the “Top 200 Global Power Thought Leaders to watch in 2021” by peopleHum in India. In 2022, he has been named on the Power List of the “Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership in 2022” by LeaderHum.
