Beliefs & fallacies
Stephen's guide
Mental map
Books & software
• General
• Legal
• READER'S
• HARVARD
Self-discipline is a learned response. We cannot call it unnatural, though, since self-discipline could occur quite naturally in certain social settings.
Usually when we aspire to a particular personal conduct or outlook that we may perceive as helpful in reaching some specific personal goal do we resort to self-discipline to achieve that aspiration. The teacher is yourself. The monitor is yourself. All punishments and rewards are doled out by yourself.
When a manager disciplines his or herself to watch for safety concerns in the workplace, to keep morale high, keep everyone alert, etc., the only consequential reward is a long, protracted nonoccurrence. No major problems develop, and in some workplace scenarios this consequential reward may lead to a certain level of complacency and boredom! If this applies to you, just remind yourself during such times that the alternative is calamity! You should be grateful for the calm seas that your efforts have created and do continue to maintain. Whatever you do, don't regress to a less disciplined, more carefree attitude. Keep your analytical mental gears turning, and continue to imagine potential for improvement; watch for possible oversight; prevent unwanted future trepidations that could develop should your subordinates lapse into complacent and/or inattentive on-the-job attitudes themselves! See Training Workers In The Workplace.
What follows is a professional decision-making attitude that you may wish to adopt as your own, incorporate into your own or just refer to from time to time.
I. Caring
A caring professional attitude embodies several factors:
- Empathizing and Allowing for all the Honest Possibilities before despising or accusing
- Incorporating Ethical and Moral Standards of Conduct into your Personal Decision-Making
- Considering All the Consequences that may ensue once your final decision begins to take effect
- Empathy & Possibility
Empathizing with others doesn't happen automatically with humans, unless we can relate with a similar experience in memory. If we spot something unusual in another person, we usually respond with laughter, scorn or annoyance, never pausing to consider possible sympathetic causes for the strange behavior.
We have a tendency to assume similar past experiences among all those around us. In our minds, all our past experiences become similar to everyone else's, and we don't customarily imagine, say, a victim of abuse or neglect or some other heinous criminal act as standing or sitting right there beside us, quietly keeping that traumatic experience from becoming known. On the flip side of that notion, we don't customarily imagine the possibility of some deviant individual standing or sitting right there beside us, working hard at gaining your trust, say, to take advantage of that later. Note that this is not an issue of paranoia; this is about possibility. You're a professional; thinking in terms of possibility is part of your job now. Forget about what is probably true. You must now consider the BIG picture.
Learn to imagine past possibilities that may have created each problem you encounter. A difficult employee, for example, may honestly be experiencing serious problems at home that are setting up the undesirable behavior. Or, perhaps, the problem goes deeper than that, back to, say, a troubled childhood and abusive parents or teachers or peers or .... The possibilities are endless.
Don't let your personal mood interfere with your professional outlook. Don't make excuses and perform according to how you “feel” or according to “what the policy is,” but aspire to take a step back, analyze the situation and consider the possibility for an honest exception to the rule. Learn to CARE. You may not always be able to empathize depending on your own personal prior experiences, but you can still IMAGINE possibilities.
By adopting ethical and moral codes of conduct for your professional establishment you are creating your own personal checklist(s) that you — and your subordinates/employees — may periodically refer to as the need arises. You or others may not always immediately recall everything that you would like to keep in mind for each important decision. By adopting an ethical code for your organization, you then have a reference for what is appropriate (and professional!) for the image projected by your organization.
Creating a Code of Ethics for Your Organization:
Chris MacDonald, Ph.D.
Business Ethics Resources on the WWW:
University of British Columbia's Centre for Applied Ethics
UBC's Applied Ethics Resources on the WWW:
Categories of Specific Topics
Moral Decision Making — An Analysis:
Chris MacDonald, Ph.D.
The Ten Commandments:
The Rain.org
You aren't caring about all those who might become affected by your decision(s) if you don't take the time to carefully consider all the possible consequences. Criminality isn't defined merely by what you may take or do, but in the professional decision-making arena also by what you don’t do, what you fail to prevent, or what you lazily or ignorantly allow to happen.
Remember that there are consequences to consequences ... and consequences to consequences of consequences, and so on. You must carefully consider all of these if you are to avoid any potential problems later on.
Remember finally that YOUR decision is YOUR responsibility, and YOU will be held accountable for ALL subsequent outcomes. Don't allow yourself to fall into the trap of blaming others for YOUR professional decisions!
II. Safety — preparing for and preventing accidents before they occur:
Professional decision makers don't expect themselves to be immune to bad ideas or erroneous thinking. We're all human; we all make mistakes. But professional decision makers know how to study their ideas to root out the bad ones so as to safeguard themselves and others from possible unwanted or undesirable consequences. They search for them, imagine every possible contingency surrounding them and prepare for them before they even practically exist. The idea is to rack your mind and use your imaginative and analytical capabilities to the fullest to (1) recognize all the possible actions that may seem available to you and (2) discover what other possible approaches you may be overlooking so that you can compare and contrast their feasibilities, pros and cons before trying to do something that you may later regret.
[...continues next page >>]
pages | 1 | 2 | | < Previous | | Next > |
Member World Wide Web Chamber of Commerce
Promoting "Responsible and Ethical Internet Business”
All opinions expressed in this web site, unless otherwise noted, are my own, Michael Gaspard. If you notice any errors or have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know by e-mailing webmaster@mdpme.com. Thank you!This web page was last updated on Monday, February 2, 2004.
http://www.mdpme.com/map.htm