FINDING ETHICAL TRUE NORTH
What You Believe Determines Your Behavior.
What others have said
A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it’ll point you True North from where you are standing, but it’s got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms you’ll encounter along the way. — Abraham Lincoln
The more cashless our society becomes, the more our moral compass slips. — Dan Ariely
It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil. The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good in order that moral choice may operate. Life is sustained by the grinding opposition of moral entities. — Anthony Burgess
Without a moral compass, the human mind will justify anything. — Mehrnaz Bassari
Truth is not a mathematical concept that needs to be proved with equations. Its singleness demands an intact moral compass, with certainties about what is good and bad. — Ece Temelkuran
I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. — Ernest Hemingway
I was always an unusual girl. My mother told me I had a chameleon soul, no moral compass pointing due north, no fixed personality; just an inner indecisiveness that was as wide and as wavering as the ocean. — Lana Del Rey
All the glorified technological achievements of Progress, including the conquest of outer space, do not redeem the Twentieth century's moral poverty which no one could imagine even as late as the Nineteenth Century. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
A nation cannot be truly great without a moral compass. — Marcia Fudge
The so-called moral compass is a part of human cognition, and when that compass comes into action through human behavior, it turns an ordinary biological creature into a unique moral being of conscience. — Abhijit Naskar
Much of the world’s moral compass is broken. The moral north reads south and the moral south reads north. — Dennis Prager1
About
This week, we venture into new territory. Believe it or not, it is territory many have thought has been thoroughly discussed, researched, and a broad general consensus reached about its content. That territory is the concept of an internal human compass, also called a human moral compass.
As a reminder, here is our place on the Ethical Intelligence Pyramid.
Our human internal compass
The Internal Compass is a psychological, neurological, mystical, or spiritual structure that contains a symbolic internal human cognitive, psychological, moral, or ethical compass used for making righteous judgments. I know that definition is quite a mouthful, but it includes all the elements we need.
All of us will have a different vision of our Internal Compass. Most of the senior business leaders I have interviewed described interactions with their Internal Compass as a “knowing,” which is similar to the Cambridge dictionary definition: “a natural feeling that makes people know what is right and wrong and how they should behave.”
Regardless of how we visualize our Internal Compass or its location within our human person, its functioning is driven by the core values and principles we’ve accumulated over a lifetime. Our core values and principles may have been rationally learned and internalized, but our emotions activate them. Or, another way to put this is to ask a question. Are our core values and principles dispassionately stored in a database, or has that storage also been accompanied by emotional passion, along the lines that memories are stored with full context?2
For example, I may intellectually “know” that stealing is wrong. And when I see theft, it may or may not move me to action. If I’m tempted to steal, I may or may not resist the temptation. If, on the other hand, I not only “know” that stealing is wrong but also infuse that stored knowledge with heartfelt emotion, I’ll be compelled to react with action when I see theft. And when I’m tempted to steal, I won’t. You may think I’m splitting hairs. I’m not. These are critical distinctions. I was surprised by how prevalent these distinctions were as I listened to the stories senior business leaders told me. Here are two of those stories.
Roger’s Story. Roger grew up in a foreign land, and his career took him to some of the most hostile places on earth drilling and developing oil and gas deposits. Roger is hardened by life’s circumstances and his chosen profession, but he possesses a kind and gentle demeanor and a forgiving heart. His Internal Compass is more flexible than most. For six years, he led worldwide exploration operations for one of the largest energy companies in the world.
His approach to resolving ethical conflicts was to protect life, look inside his Internal Compass and search for the rightness. Roger describes his approach.
How do I resolve ethical dilemmas? I'm looking at the situation and asking the question: Is there any chance whatsoever of an injury or death? If the answer is yes, then it's not acceptable. After that, one reaches inside to look for rightness, and it's very, very hard to find the answer. Finding where right fades to wrong is oftentimes nearly impossible.
Rick’s Story. Rick is the Chief Compliance Officer for a Fortune 500 natural resources company. Rick is also a lawyer with deep experience as a federal regulator. He has a keen sense of doing the right thing and is sensitive to nuance. Rick describes his method for discovering True North.
How do I approach ethical issues? Whenever I think about it, I just consider what my mother would say because she’s the source of my moral compass. I tell people that. But that doesn't always work because your mom might be a crook! Ha, ha, ha! I also use the newspaper or online tests. Would it be something I would be embarrassed about if it was published? If it's a question about my own personal conduct, that’s the way I approach it.
If it’s something one of our senior executives wants to do, like add some expensive C-Suite perquisites or fiddle with some executive expense account policies, I pose a different question: Suppose we publish your proposed perqs or expense account policy changes in the annual proxy statement to shareholders? That usually ends the conversation!3
Why it matters
Your Internal Compass is either infused with knowledge or belief. You can transform information into knowledge upon which you may or may not take action. But belief lives in a transformed state already infused with emotion and passion, and it’s always poised for action. Here’s a question. Would you rather lead a team that has excellent knowledge about your vision and mission or a team that actually believes in your mission and vision? I thought so! Here are two points to consider.
First, as a manager or leader, you must understand your team members’ worldviews because it provides insight into the contents of their Internal Compass. Some have called this a measure of the content of character. Different worldviews yield Internal Compasses pointing to different True Norths. Posing the same ethical dilemma to two different team members may yield surprisingly different ethical judgments.
Oh, you say, that’s not a problem for you because you have an organizational code of ethics and a stated set of organizational values. That’s great! It’s an excellent first step, but it’s insufficient. I’m sure with all the training you provide, your team members know the content of your organizational code of ethics and your values statement. I have two questions for you: One, is it knowledge or belief? Two, when employees are confronted with an ethical dilemma, which set of values is going to prevail—the organizational or the personal?
Second, as a manager or leader, you must know whether your team members’ Internal Compasses are based on knowledge or belief. Oh, you think this is not important because each team member signs a statement of agreement every year assuring you of their devotion to the organization’s code of ethics and values statement. This may result in great legal protection for your organization, but it should give you little piece of mind. Team members who have intellectualized your organization’s code of ethics and its value statement will always act out of belief, not knowledge. I know that’s a surprising and upsetting revelation. Remember, ethical judging is drenched in emotions.
Remember, even if you are not an “official” manager or leader, you are always a leader because you must first lead yourself. I cannot overstress these points. We now live in a diverse world containing a multitude of worldviews. I grew up on a farm in Indiana, and I have “traditional” Midwest values and views. A close friend of mine grew up in Nigeria. I can assure you that his worldview is different from mine, but I happen to know that he is a Christian with a Christian worldview. So, we will render similar ethical judgments.
What would you do?
You’re sitting across the desk from your long-time personal banker negotiating a mortgage on your dream home. The banker says, “Zack, we’ve approved your mortgage, and we’re prepared to go to closing. But, because of your credit problems a few years ago and these rising interest rates, the interest rate on your pending mortgage is four points higher than the current market rate. If you could show an extra $29,000 in annual income or add $20,000 to your downpayment, we can get the rate down to the market, and you’ll save more than $150,000 over the life of the loan. So, just initial this change on the application, and we’ll be good to go. You think about it, then you . . .
Don’t even think twice and initial the phony increased income because you’ll get a raise of almost that much next year.
Agree to the higher downpayment because you manage your elderly mother’s bank accounts, and she would never miss the $20,000.
Accept the mortgage as is, knowing you will have a difficult time making the payments.
Brace yourself for the massive disappointment you will face at home when you tell the family you won’t be moving out of the apartment anytime soon.
After much thought, you initial the phony increased income and vow to begin looking for a new job that will pay a higher salary.
Where does your compass point?
Next week, we will continue the journey.
Remember, you cannot lie and be ethically intelligent.
Until then, Shalom!
Portions of this post were taken from my book Ethical Intelligence: The Foundation of Leadership. my doctoral dissertation Exploring Ethical Intelligence Through Ancient Wisdom And The Lived Experiences Of Senior Business Leaders
References
Unless otherwise noted, quotations are taken from A-Z Quotes, Goodreads, and Brainy Quotes.
Snieder, R., & Zhu, Q. (2020). Connecting to the Heart: Teaching Value-Based Professional Ethics [Article]. Science & Engineering Ethics, 26(4), 2235-2254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00216-2
Opincar, J. T. (2016). Ethical Intelligence: The Foundation of Leadership [Book]. Cultural Fire Press, LLC.
November 15, 2022, Volume 2, Issue 44
RE: ARE LIES HATE SPEECH?
Interesting article.
However, the message seems to come uncomfortably close to the false premise that there is only one immutable truth on any subject and anything else that deviates from it is a lie. The list of notable "lies" from this list of famous people seems to fail to take into account that each speaker could have believed them to be true with the information they were given at the time or that in other cases the statements were merely aspirational.
If everything that is uttered by humans later turns out not to be true to any degree and labeled a premeditated lie, what is the benefit in such approach?