Ethics or Ego - your choice
Recently I've seen a challenging difference in the workforce and the community that has caused me to question the difference between ethics and ego. Can we have both? Or are they mutually exclusive?
I believe that good leaders create great leaders. If you are mentoring and teaching in an effective way, you will actually be the cocoon in which that beautiful butterfly grows its wings and flies strongly off into the unknown. The greatest compliment you will receive from that butterfly will come in the form of other butterflies you meet in your flights and journeys. They will say "Do you know x? They said you were the biggest influence on their life".
What a great thing for anyone to say! That you were a great influence. That's ethics. Ethics are a great influence. Ethics are the small voices in your head that says you should let that butterfly grow, develop and fly free. Ethics say that if you lose that butterfly from your tree they will take the pollen to another tree and create more beauty and strength than they ever could if they shared your tree.
Ego? Well that's the other voice, that little whiney voice that says you have to keep that butterfly because it's yours. It's control, it's the greatest handbrake of them all, and it destroys two butterflies and ends the line. Ego is the voice that comes back to you when you overhear in a cafe "Yeah, that's the person x used to work for, their career took off when they left that place."
Is that the voice you want to hear? Will that give you a warm glow? I highly doubt it.
Ego is something we all need to have a little bit of as it's the stuff that holds our backs straight when we struggle. Ego is also self confidence, self validation and drives us forwards when nobody else is helping us. It's not a bad thing. Like the Skyhooks said "Ego, it's not a dirty word". Ego is also a very personal thing, it's ours to create, and ours to keep. It's a cute little thing that we can keep inside a locket. It could be the display photo on our phone that we see when our phone unlocks. It reminds us of what is important, and it says "You've got this".
Ethics are not ours to keep, they are ours to share. They are the stuff that drives whole communities and corporations large and small on to greater things. Ethics are the moral fibre that holds the cloth together when the moths attack. They aren't a podcast, they aren't on a lolly wrapper, they are solid, real and should be seen everywhere we go. They are the name badge we wear at all times, and they shouldn't change when we go to work, to our community group or when we go to buy the milk. They can change, they can develop, and they should. But they shouldn't be left behind.
Ethics encourage others to do better, fly higher and prouder and encompass all manner of emotions, actions and reasons for being. In some schools they teach under a values system. Values equal Ethics.
Recently I have seen groups struggle due to the leaders displaying an out of balance approach to ethics vs ego. The ego has been winning, and the organisation has struggled to fight it. Ego when let out of it's personal space will actually beat ethics in the short term. Those who display ethics will leave an organisation that has been overrun with an ego.
So what is your loudest voice? An out of control ego that says you have to overpower those around you for your own benefit? Or strong ethics that say you can empower others to do their best knowing that you will benefit from that in the long run?
Listen carefully to those voices.
And may ethics herald your new beginnings.
I believe that good leaders create great leaders. If you are mentoring and teaching in an effective way, you will actually be the cocoon in which that beautiful butterfly grows its wings and flies strongly off into the unknown. The greatest compliment you will receive from that butterfly will come in the form of other butterflies you meet in your flights and journeys. They will say "Do you know x? They said you were the biggest influence on their life".
What a great thing for anyone to say! That you were a great influence. That's ethics. Ethics are a great influence. Ethics are the small voices in your head that says you should let that butterfly grow, develop and fly free. Ethics say that if you lose that butterfly from your tree they will take the pollen to another tree and create more beauty and strength than they ever could if they shared your tree.
Ego? Well that's the other voice, that little whiney voice that says you have to keep that butterfly because it's yours. It's control, it's the greatest handbrake of them all, and it destroys two butterflies and ends the line. Ego is the voice that comes back to you when you overhear in a cafe "Yeah, that's the person x used to work for, their career took off when they left that place."
Is that the voice you want to hear? Will that give you a warm glow? I highly doubt it.
Ego is something we all need to have a little bit of as it's the stuff that holds our backs straight when we struggle. Ego is also self confidence, self validation and drives us forwards when nobody else is helping us. It's not a bad thing. Like the Skyhooks said "Ego, it's not a dirty word". Ego is also a very personal thing, it's ours to create, and ours to keep. It's a cute little thing that we can keep inside a locket. It could be the display photo on our phone that we see when our phone unlocks. It reminds us of what is important, and it says "You've got this".
Ethics are not ours to keep, they are ours to share. They are the stuff that drives whole communities and corporations large and small on to greater things. Ethics are the moral fibre that holds the cloth together when the moths attack. They aren't a podcast, they aren't on a lolly wrapper, they are solid, real and should be seen everywhere we go. They are the name badge we wear at all times, and they shouldn't change when we go to work, to our community group or when we go to buy the milk. They can change, they can develop, and they should. But they shouldn't be left behind.
Ethics encourage others to do better, fly higher and prouder and encompass all manner of emotions, actions and reasons for being. In some schools they teach under a values system. Values equal Ethics.
Recently I have seen groups struggle due to the leaders displaying an out of balance approach to ethics vs ego. The ego has been winning, and the organisation has struggled to fight it. Ego when let out of it's personal space will actually beat ethics in the short term. Those who display ethics will leave an organisation that has been overrun with an ego.
So what is your loudest voice? An out of control ego that says you have to overpower those around you for your own benefit? Or strong ethics that say you can empower others to do their best knowing that you will benefit from that in the long run?
Listen carefully to those voices.
And may ethics herald your new beginnings.
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