Serious Soft Skills

Whether we know it or not, our actions usually align with our ethics, and people with good ethics tend to be trusted and respected more than those whose ethical decision making is questionable. We are going to look at the ethical implications of decisions we make in this weeks’ episode of the Serious Soft Skills podcast. 

Among the topics cohosts Dr. Tobin Porterfield and Bob Graham discuss are:

A definition of ethics and how it applies to work

The value of virtue

How questionable ethics can erode trust of team members

Questioning cripples progress

The societal effect on our ethics

Are ethics black and white?

The Golden Rule

Short-term versus long-term benefits and how they relate to ethics

The personal nature of ethics

How our ethics set a tone for an organization

Tips for Good Ethics at Work

1. Don’t be deceived by short-term benefits
2. Matching your ethics to your organization’s ethics

A good book on ethical decision-making, The Power of Ethical Management by Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale, with three guiding questions on ethics

1. Is it legal?  

2. Is it balanced?  

3. How will it make me feel about myself? Unethical acts erode self-esteem. 

Next week

We will talk to Mike Shelah, an expert at LinkedIn on how soft skills play into that social media platform, as well as networking in general. New episodes come out every Wednesday.