Many find themselves frustrated in their careers by lack of preparation for dealing with predictable dilemmas that regularly arise in the world of work. Two in five professionals fired in their jobs after college are terminated for lying, or misuse of technology. Easy to avoid! Or is it? What if you find you have to compromise your values to keep your job? What if they ask you to lie or cheat, even though you know if you are found out you will be fired? What if you find out the company is breaking the law?
Successful people know about and have the skills taught in this specialization. You should, too.
Those who wish to make a difference, build positive reputations, become leaders, and advance in their careers must cultivate professional success skills, along with their specific job skills. The central themes of this course – knowing yourself and your values, recognizing and meeting ethical challenges, using an analytical decision-making framework, identifying potential pitfalls, and developing tools to use in the moment – are essential soft skills for succeeding at work. In short, an ethical framework is necessary, and not just nice; smart ethics, as we define them, are integral to success.
From the lesson
Week 4: Knowing What To Do Isn't Enough – How Do You Say It?
Develop personal scripts for difficult situations.
Director of the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics (NCPRE), Professor Emerita of Business, and Research Professor at the Coordinated Science Laboratory
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In our next segment,
we're actually going to work on constructing personal scripts.
Before we get there, let's think about the mindset you want to use,
the framing for constructing a script.
Have you ever had a conversation with a person who speaks an entirely different
language than your do or
watched a conversation between two people who speak different languages?
One of the things that happens sometimes
when you have people talking different languages is that they try to get louder.
As if getting louder is going to help the other person understand
when they don't speak the same language.
It doesn't work that way.
It's the same thing with personal scripts.
If in your personal scripts, what you do is assert your own needs,
your own desires, your own position, more and more strongly.
It's not going to help you advance in the ways and
solve the problem you're trying to solve.
So the mindset in thinking about personal scripts
is it has to be framed in terms of the other person's interests and goals.
Why does this matter to the other person, what you're proposing?
So think back to posing as a customer, if what our young professional had said was,
I don't think I'd be able to do a very good job and get the information you want
because I'm not very good at, people tell when I'm not telling the truth.
How about if I can go to marketing and
find another way to get the information for you?
That's framed in terms of the interest of the supervisor who wants the information.
Sometimes it helps to frame it in terms of protecting the organization.
.Oh my goodness,
I want to make sure that any report I turn in for that reflects well on our unit.
Remember the dinner receipt with the boss?
If that script was framed in terms of, I want to make sure that
I get your reimbursement through the first time we process it.
So if I could have all the documentation, then it won't be questioned and
you'll get your reimbursement more quickly.
That's in terms of the other person's interest.
Making sure something stays done.
I don't want this to be kicked back,
so if I had the documentation it will stay with us.
I don't want you or your rep integrity to be questioned so
if I have the documentation it will help.
So, your mindset for forming a personal script is about in terms of the other
person's interest, in terms of protecting the organization you're in and
in terms of getting something done that stays done.
So that's how we start thinking about it.
So here are some examples of useful personal scripts in various situations.
Wow, I really need some time to reflect on how to do this well,
would it be okay if I get back to you in 20 or 30 minutes?
There was something about that orientation.
Maybe I should go back and double check that so that when I do it,
it's totally consistent with the rules as they just told them to me.
Let me recheck all the numbers and get back to you on that.
I want to make sure that anything I tell you is absolutely correct.
I'm so rushed right now, I couldn't do this justice.
How about if I carve out some dedicated time Wednesday and so by Wednesday at 3,
I could give you an answer that I'm pretty sure is going to be a solid one.
So in your mindset as you think about constructing personal scripts,
remember that you want it to be respectful, you want it to be polite, and
to think about your tone.
You're not trying to assert it more loudly.
You're trying to say it in a way that's persuasive, a way that's respectful and
a way that's focused on getting the job done, the right way.
Not the expedient way, maybe not the sleazy way, maybe not a way that makes you
uncomfortable, maybe not a way that you'd be proud to put your name on.
The right way, the honorable way, the way that conforms with the company and
the company's expectations and your own code of conduct.
There will be times when you framing it in terms of the right
thing isn't going to be met with, yes, we should always do the right thing.
It's going to be, [SOUND] and that's a place that having
a script prepared too will help you that's respectful,
that's framed in terms of the other person's interest.
That's framed in terms of doing a good job.
That's framed in terms of doing the right things, because at some point they're
not your values if you're not willing to sacrifice for them.
If it makes somebody mad when you say, I'm concerned about that.
Or I'd really like to find a better way to do that, that follows the rules.
And the other person doesn't like that very much.
That may actually be revealing a bigger truth that you need to think about this
job and your fit in it.
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C. K. GunsalusDirector of the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics (NCPRE), Professor Emerita of Business, and Research Professor at the Coordinated Science Laboratory
