Ethics is mostly connected with the effects of people’s behavior on others. Moat ethicists believe that the rules for discovering the most effective actions are common in most cultures. The guidelines include trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness among others. Ethics also follow activities that do not encourage human suffering and that supports an egalitarian society and promotes happiness. Ethics without action are worthless since planning and drafting ethics does not serve the purpose. For ethics to be practical, people and organizations need to abide by ethical guidelines, perform their daily duties with fairness for the society to benefit from ethics. Therefore, ethics is critical in our daily lives since it determines our credibility, the satisfaction of basic human needs and improves our decision-making skills.
The funeral exercise reflects on personal values and enables us to think about what people would say about them in our absence. In my absence, I would like people to celebrate my life talking about the good things I did when I was alive. I would like to leave a positive impact in friends and family members in a way that when they think about me, they remember my personal values and how I upheld morals. The kin of life I am living truly goes in line with the person I would wish to become. I value others and most importantly treat them the same way I would like to be treated.
Sigmund Freud is known as the pioneer of psychoanalysis, a comprehensive form of therapy that evaluates a person’s life, especially during their early childhood years to understand the psychological ailments. Sigmund also covered personality intensively; one of his theories suggesting that the human mind has three parts, the ego, the id and the superego (Gentile, 2010). The five people five attributes exercise on the other hand reflects on the five dominant personality traits that affect or form people’s character. Below are the five personality traits:
Openness and Experience: This attribute is best described as the complexity and depth of a person’s experiences and mental life. Transparency and experience is also referred to as imagination and intellect. The attribute follows a person’s willingness to try new things, to think outside the box and to be vulnerable. Some of the most common traits that are connected to experience and happiness include imaginative, insightful, daring, preference for variety and creativity (Parks-Leduc, Feldman & Bardi, 2015). I believe that I am high on this attribute since I have the love for learning new things, engage in creative hobby’s and love meeting new people. People who are low in openness to experience mostly prefer routine over a variety of activities and prefers less of creative hobbies and activities.
Conscientiousness: conscientiousness is described as the ability to control impulses and act in socially acceptable behavior and facilitated goal-oriented behavior. Conscientious individuals can delay gratification, plan, organize and work with the rules. I discovered that I have this attribute since; I excel on the ability to delay gratification, patience and the ability to work with guidelines in my daily activities. I can attribute my success in studies due to the ability to follow instructions, plan for studies and the ability to predict occasions. Similarly, people who are low in conscientiousness often fail to accomplish their goals and choose to postpone major events without reasons. I identified this attribute in class when conducting group activities with other students. While other people find it tiring to plan for group activities, I found it interesting and always wanted to be the planner. Similarly, I also discovered this attribute when evaluating my consistency in personal class activities and group activities.
Extroversion: Extroversion follows two familiar ends of a similar spectrum, introversion, and extroversion. Extroversion and introversion describe where an individual draws energy through their interaction with others. Extroverts draw their energy by interacting with other people while introverts shun interacting with others and draw their energy from within themselves. Extroversion is another essential attribute since it allows me to communicate with others, make new friends and make professional connections. Unlike other people who get bored when interacting, I feel always free and jubilant when sharing my feelings and ideas from friends, classmates, and family.
Studies indicate that it is better to be an extrovert since extroverts learn new things from others, learn about other people’s suffering and avoid getting stressed. I discovered my introvert nature because I always felt lonely and uncomfortable when spending my time in solitude. I found that I am more energetic and happy around people, and this has helped me on many occasions. Being friendly, assertive and outgoing are other indicators that made me learn about my extrovert nature. I also tend to seek out new opportunities for interacting with new people, feel comfortable around friends a choose action over contemplation.
Agreeableness: This is another critical value that enables me to interact with others ethically. Agreeable people tend to value tradition, benevolence, and conformity while trying to avoid placing too much value on power, the pursuit of personal pleasures and achievement (Gentile, 2010). I believe that agreeableness is one of my core values since I am motivated by the desire to accomplish social obligations or follow guidelines and the concern for other people’s awareness. My positive family and peer relationships, forgiveness and gratitude are some of the indicators that enabled me to discover this core value. High agreeableness is closely connected to healthy midlife adjustment and strong social support (Eisenberg, Reykowski & Staub, 2016). However, too much agreeableness can be dangerous since it may discourage an individual from achieving personal goals and focusing too much effort on family and friends. Therefore, I plan to adjust this value and ensure it does not prevent me from achieving personal goals.
Tale of Two Stories
I decided to speak up because according to ethics, communication is paramount and the best way to resolve issues is being the first person to speak.
I drew my motivation from my attributes, the ability to face situations rather than ignore. I also used my ability to listen and understand before deciding whether to speak up. Sometimes the difference between agreement and disagreement is the ability to take action.
I would have liked to engage my fellow workmates in a conversation, to sum up, the scenario and discuss about the importance of recognizing that all of us are capable of acting on our values.
One day my values conflicted what was expected of me, and I failed to speak up at a board meeting. My confidence to engage others and my extrovert nature would have made it easier for me to speak and act. Most people fail to act or speak due to the fear that the situation will worsen, but speaking up eases tension and enables others to shares their feelings. My ability to engage others would have been helpful
One of the experiences that remind me about the importance of morals and upholding personal values is one day at work when the senior manager called me at his office to discuss lateness, but I forgot to go and failed to act when I realized my mistake.
I failed to address the issue since I thought the senior manager had forgotten and moved on.
I feel guilty that I did not respond, despite the fact that I had various personal values that would have helped me to address the problem.
My outgoing character would have enabled me to face the manager and address the issue professionally since I find it easy to start conversations and interact with my colleagues.
Professional Purpose
My personal, professional purpose is to serve as a leader, apply ethical principles and live a balanced life. Similarly, my description of personal success is being consistent in my daily activities and treating people I interact with on with a daily basis with respect and fairness.
My personal goals include achieving my dreams and the realization of the organization. My professional dreams include climbing the corporate ladder and attaining the highest level of management at work to help the organization achieve its mission. The business career is diverse, and I plan to build an immense network of professional individuals who can help me increase my experience. I hope to impact my fellow workmates by motivating them to apply ethics and personal values in the working environment. I want to feel free at work and be able to share ideas with colleagues and friends, at the end of it, I want to be able to achieve the same in the society and live a happy life.
Self Story
One of the past experiences that remind me of the importance of upholding personal values was few months ago when a quarrel ensued after one of my colleagues used another colleague’s computer without consent. When the argument began, I tried calming down the two parties so that they could calm down, but the situation worsened. The two parties turned against me, citing that I was poking into their business and that I should leave them alone. However, I reflected upon my values and decided not to let the harsh words get to my head. Firstly, I decided to use the value of agreeableness to agree with the two, and show them I interrupted because I care for their well-being.
Conscientiousness is another integral value that was useful in the scenario since it is effortless to use negative language, but conscientiousness allows a person to control impulses and stay calm. When two people engaged in a fight remain calm, they can think and reflect on their actions. In the end, the colleague who logged into the other’s computer accepted his mistake and apologized, and the aggravated colleague also apologized for using harsh words.
