Are you treating yourself ethically?
From the Ethics Bistro Blog
by Tara Leparulo,
Shenila Shahabuddin, Juan Posada Toro, Yannick Arekion, Albert Agbemenu, Kannan Ganesan, Ming Yeung, Laszlo J. Kremmer MBA, CSPO®, CSM®, PMP®, Stelian ROMAN, Witold Hendrysiak
We all tackle ethical dilemmas. Wrong decisions can break careers. Which are the key challenges faced? What are some likely solutions? Where can we find effective tools? Who can apply these and why? Dry, theoretical discussions don't help. Join us for lively, light conversations to learn, share and grow!
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PMI has an excellent code of Ethics and Professional conduct, with four core values. If you don't remember them, don't feel guilty. In my sessions I asked the participants if they remember them. I found less than 10% remember them all, half of them remember two, and all just remember one. The good thing is if you ask them to guess, they often come with more than 10 values with one or two of them are in the core values. Anyway they are “Respect, Honesty, Responsibly and Fairness”.
When I ask them how they can implement them, they said a lot of things makes me feel they are angels working in the heaven (which is also nice). Maybe they are, I don’t judge.
The problem is they don’t mention anything about how they apply these core values on themselves.
No one said “I first respect myself and my passion, then respect my family, then respect my society, and then respect everyone at work. No one said I'm fair with myself first. I'm honest with myself first. I'm fair with myself firstand I am responsible of myself.
I believe that before we look at the world around us and apply those good values at work, we need first to treat ourselves ethically.
First you need apply this to yourself, before you can it elsewhere.
The ethics assessment always focus on your actions in different situations with others not ourselves.
To make it easy, did you ask yourself these questions?
Am I fair with myself? Do I get a fair price for my services?
Am I responsible of my own happiness? What about my peace of mind? What about decisions that I take or not take to make myself happy and healthy?
Do I respect myself and build a good brand for myself? Do I influence everyone to give me the respect I deserve?
Am I honest with myself about what I capable to do or not to do?
You need to sit with yourself and prepare a list of questions. After that, you need to make a cup of coffee and sit in quite place to start your journey inside yourself
Possibly you will discover that the world outside yourself makes it difficult to treat yourself ethically.
The question here is, if you don’t treat yourself ethically, how can you do this with others?
I'm not psychologist, but I'm a professional like all of you. I found that in order to make everyone happy, I forget to treat myself ethically. I was working on more than I could do, or accept attacks on my personal respect, or not being responsible enough on myself. I decided to change and be ethical with myself first before I do this with others. I believe that if I can't do this with myself I can't offer these values to others.
If work and society, don’t allow you to implement the values that you believe in, how can they expect you to give back to them?
Start your self-discovery journey today, not tomorrow. After you fix the weakness go to the world stronger, bolder and more ethically.
This is what I believe. The discussion is now about treating yourself first, and then others”
Posted
by
Mohamed Hassan
on: October 25, 2019 03:28 PM |
Permalink
Comments (9)
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LORI WILSON
RETIRED - Technical Project Manager| RETIRED - LifePoint Health
Clarkston, Wa, United States
Very nicely stated and it just turns out this was the perfect day for me to read this!
Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Mohamed
Interesting your reflection
Thank you for sharing it.
If people do not remember the principles of the PMI code of ethics, they can hardly use them as guidelines for their conduct.
We agree
Everything is born within us
Simona Bonghez
Managing Partner| Colors in Projects ltd
Bucharest, Romania
This is indeed a thought provoking article, Mohamed, thanks for sharing. I appreciate very much the idea of treating oneself ethically. A new perspective here: some of us tend to be very self-critical, and, in the face of hardship, we focus on what we did wrong and we treat ourselves in ways we would never treat others...
Thanks, Mohamed, for sharing your reflection.
I've never thought that way, but yes, everything starts with us.
Self-caring is the first act of ethical life.
Abel Camelo
Project Manager | Business Consultant| Angular Consulting
Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
Thank you for sharing your thoughts
Lily Murariu
Research Council Officer Program Advisor| National Research Council Canada
Cantley, Quebec, Canada
@Mohamed, thanks for sharing this blog.
It is a matter of professionalism and self actualization to be at that point in your professional practice where introspection and reflection are tools that you use to better yourselves. Taking care of yourself, and knowing your self should be part of the daily routine but many times we "skip" this very important step.
Look at your own value system and consider one of the Golden Rule of Zen habits: "To treat others, as you want to be treated"; and to its reverse:"Treat Yourself the way you want others to treat you".
Amany Nuseibeh
Speaker, Global Leader | Optimal Consulting
Sydney, Nsw, Australia
Thank you Mohamed for sharing this thought provoking calling for self-reflection and examination. How true! We need to walk the talk, practice what we preach and above all be mindful and considerate of ourselves as we try to make the world around us a better place; whether on a personal or professional level. As PMs, we aim to create a harmonious environment, however, as yo stated, are we sacrificing any standard as we ignore, dismiss and just let go of certain behaviours...
Mohamed Hassan
Project Management Consultant, Author and Speaker| LIFELONG
Kuwait, Kuwait
Thanks for your comments, and thoughts.
We need to remind ourselves about the Ethics values and how to apply them on ourselves first the on the world.
Thanks again
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"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around wondering about yourself."
- Katharine Hepburn
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