What does ethics mean as a core value?
Ethics as a core value means having a clear, considered moral code and using it to weigh the right and wrong in everyday decisions, including the small, ordinary ones.
Most decisions have a moral dimension, though plenty of people never notice it. If ethics is one of your core values, you do. A pricing change, a hiring shortcut, a joke at someone’s expense: you see the right and wrong in them as well as the practical side. You don’t work out each case from scratch, either. There’s a code, whether it comes from philosophy, faith, your profession or your own hard thinking, and it shapes what you will and won’t do.
What does ethics look like in practice?
- You ask whether something is right as well as whether it works.
- You check who else will be affected before you sign off a decision.
- You refuse to use a loophole that’s legal but, by your standards, wrong.
- You can explain the principles behind a hard call, not just the outcome.
- You raise an ethical concern in a meeting even when it slows things down.
When is ethics overplayed?
An ethical code applied too strictly can turn into moralising. You may lecture, judge people who reach different conclusions, or become so focused on getting things morally right that you struggle to act in messy situations where every option has a cost. It can also make others reluctant to bring you their dilemmas. The healthy version holds its code firmly and applies it with humility. One way to keep it in check is to notice, over a week, how often your ethics come up about your own choices and how often about other people’s.
Often confused with
Ethics vs Integrity
Integrity is acting consistently with your principles. Ethics is about the principles themselves: having a clear, considered view of what’s right.
Ethics vs Honour
Honour is living up to a high personal standard of conduct. Ethics is a moral code for decisions of every kind, including ones that have nothing to do with how you’re seen.
Ethics vs Justice
Justice is standing up for what’s right in the world, especially when a wrong has been done. Ethics starts with your own choices and how you make them.
Questions to sit with
- Where does your moral code come from, and which part of it have you never really questioned?
- What have you done recently that was legal and allowed, but didn’t sit right with you?
- When two of your principles conflict, which one usually wins?
More values in Ethics
Doing right and treating people fairly.
About the author
Matt Rutherford is a Career and Leadership Coach. The Values Finder is the same exercise he uses with his coaching clients. He also writes Stuff that MattRs, a weekly newsletter with practical ideas to help you think clearer and work better.
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