○ It is an internal feeling that something is true.
○ It is what we think about things.
○ An individual usually tends to internalise the beliefs of people around him or of charismatic leaders.
2. Values
○ Values are traits of individual character that one acquires from various sources throughout one’s life
○ Such values are acquired on the basis of socialization, knowledge, awareness, experiences etc.
○ Beliefs of a person can be changed easily but values are very difficult to change.
○ For example, Raju may believe Americans by nature are bad, without any prior objective facts.
But if Raju sees an American helping someone, he may change his belief system accordingly. ○ E.g. One important Indian value is sacrifise and one important western value is pleasure
Values driven by social norms
• Empathy , respect (Touching feet of elders), Tolerance (Celebration all religious festivals together)
Divergence of Individual Values and social norms
An individual might have regressive views about women but behave with courtey due to organisational values
Non-smoker might try smoking due to peer pressure
3. Civil services values
What?
○ Non-partisanship
○ Honesty
○ Integrity
○ Transparency
○ Accountability
○ Selflessness
○ Patriotism
Nolan Committee values
Objectivity
Honesty
Integrity
Openness
Accountability
Leadership
Selflessness
(OHIOALS)
Significance of values
○ Personal well being : Good values help in building good character
○ Good conduct
○ Good behaviour
○ Develop trust
○ Long lasting relationships ○ Social harmony in society
○ Creates sense of satisfaction
5. Ethics
Ethics is a set of standards that society places on itself. They are universal in nature
They help us decide what is right and what is wrong.
It seeks to achieve summum bonum (highest good for all)
So, basically they focus on conduct or actions of individuals.
Ethics are defined by society and not individually.
Also, being ethical is not same as doing whatever society wants. In many societies, most accepted standards are ethical. But in some societies most accepted standards may not be ethical. An entire society can become corrupt. Ex: Nazi Germany
Importance
○ Time saving
○ Reduce moral sacrifices
○ Preservation of self and Society
○ Ensures Peace and Prosperity
○ Promotes sense of feeling of Justice
○ Act as guiding principle
○ Makes human life meaningful and dignified
6. Values vs ethics
Suppose someone highly values success, we will expect him to be goal oriented.
But the method he choose to achieve that success, either by correct or incorrect ways, is a matter of ethics.
Ex: Concepts such as competition, compromise, hard work may be values of someone but they are not considered as ethics as they don’t focus on action. While concepts like honesty, truthfulness, fairness are used in decision making to decide rightness or wrongness of an action. Thus they are considered as ethics.
7. Codes, principles and ideals
A code of action will enable a person to behave with integrity.
Principles are the manifestation of values, morals and ethics. Ex: A person who acts upon principle of transparency may be reflecting his value of honesty.
An ideal is a principle or value that one pursues as a goal, usually in the context of ethics. Ideals are one of high or noble character.
8. Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct
○ A code of ethics, or professional code of ethics, is usually a set of general guidelines or values.
○ A code of conduct policy is typically more specific, giving guidelines for how to respond in certain situations. A code of conduct example would be a rule expressly prohibiting accepting or offering bribes.
Morals:
a. It is the beliefs and principles of an individual or a community,moulded by societal, cultural or religious norms, about what is right and wrong or good and bad.
Eg. Telling truth,respecting,serving and not harming others etc can be considered moral
actions
They are more personal
While ethics are provided by an external source, morals are individual’s own principles regarding right and wrong.
Morals generally emerge from religion. However, they change over time
Thus ethics are dependent on others for definition while morals stem from inside
Ethics vs Morals: Morals and ethics are usually congruent with each other as an individual is part of this society only. But sometimes, morals may come in conflict with ethics. Ex: Defence lawyer for a terrorist
Ethical but not moral : Live-in, LGBT
Moral but not ethical : Temple entry, cultural practices
Both moral and ethical : Objective decision making without any discrimination Neither : Terrorism
Sympathy vs empathy vs compassion
Sympathy : refers to acknowledging another person’s pain and providing comfort and assurance. E.g. A sympathetic officer would be extra sensitivie while dealing with survivours of a natural disaster
Empathy : is the ability to place oneself in another‘s position and understand their feelings and experience their emotions. Unless the public officials empathize with the common man, they will not be able to understand the problems faced by him and consequently, public services will not improve. Ex: An empathetic official will ensure ramps in his/ her office premises to aid the movement of the physically disabled.
Compassion : refers to a step further, where a person not only feels empathetic but also a desire to help alleviate the suffering of the other person. Thus, the emphasis here is on action and wanting to help.
In, other word while Sympathy focuses on awareness, empathy focuses on experience and Compassion focuses on action.
For example, if a poor person come to an administrative officer without adequate documents for a LPG connection. In case, he just shows his concern, it is sympathy. Further, in case he consoles the person and tells him that he shares his agony and suffering, it is empathy. Finally, in case he not only shows his solidarity but also uses his discretionary powers to allocate him a connection, it is compassion.
Compassionate Kozhikode is a project by district administration of Kozhikode to facilitate people who are willing to give to people who are in need.
1. How to cultivate empathy
Art, literature, cinema can help us inculcate empathy. Ex: Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali realistically portrays the poverty and rural India. Mother Teresa’s autobiography, No Greater Love, moves one’s heart.
Encourage perspective talking, role playing games, put yourself in the shoes of other people.
Visit slums, old age homes, etc.
Emotional intelligence
People of all religions are given public holidays on religious events. It should encourage them to participate in each other’s festivals.
Right to education act provides 25% reservation to children from economically weaker section in the schools. So, rich and poor will interact with each other and cultivate empathy for each other.
IAS probationers are sent to Bharat Darshan for similar reason of understanding the diversity of India and grow compassion towards others.
2. Compassion
An administrator, without violating the prescribed laws and rules, would demonstrate compassion for the poor, the disabled and the weak while using his discretion in making decisions. At least, he would not grant any benefits to the stronger section of society only because they are strong and would not deny the due consideration to the weak, despite their weakness.
Opening an Alumni cell in my School and guiding students for their future prospects
Helping security guard of my hostel to fill a school application form for his daughter. Contributing a meagre amount, from my internship stipend, to an NGO working for children education.
12. Work ethics
It represents good attitude towards work. A person with good work ethics will show strong commitment, sincerity, respect for time in fulfilment of one’s duties. Work is considered not as a burden but as an opportunity to serve and constructively contribute to society
As Swami Vivekananda observed, every duty is holy and devotion to duty is the highest form of worship. PM Modi said in his August 15 speech said that more than Karya (work), Karya Sanskriti (work attitude) of the Government is important.
Objectivity refers to taking decisions on fair basis without any bias or external influence.
Independent of emotions and personal prejudice
It means being truthful, unbiased, impartial and sticking to facts. Objectivity helps civil servants to take reasoned decisions and defending them in front of others.
For example, a judicial magistrate with objectivity would go by the merits of a robbery case rather than being influenced by the public perception of the culprit.
Fairness : However objectivity should not be misconstrued as a mechanical and rigid adherence to laws and rules. There must be an element of fairness in the decision making.
Ex: A judge imposing same fine on a rich and poor man when both have done same crime may be objective but not fair. Judiciary need to be fair along with being objective or one can say that there must be enlightened objectivity.
16. How to inculcate objectivity
○ Training.
○ Transparency: After Right to information act, civil servants today will think twice before taking discretionary decisions, fearing that he will have to answer it if someone files an RTI.
○ Accountability: Within judicial/administrative procedure, there should be mechanism for appellate board to review decisions of the authorities. Ex: taxation, land acquisition etc.
○ Critical thinking: ASI began gold hunting in Uttar Pradesh, on order of a union minister who believed a baba. They showed lack of critical thinking by blindly following dictates of some person.
○ Information management: If you don’t have complete information, you can’t take objective decisions. Ex: SDGs have 17 goals and 169 targets. Previously in MDGs, we had 18 indicators, yet we lacked proper statistical databases to compare performance
18. Public trust
It is the firm belief of the people in public offices, institutions and officials i.e. the measure of public confidence on the working of the Government.
High public trust enables a civil servant to take bold decisions, whereas, low public trust raises question on every activity.
c. How to build it
Consistent performance
Transparency
Accountability iv. Good public service delivery
v. Public participation in decision making
d. E.g. : Election Commission enjoys high trust and this has helped it to implement ‘Model Code of Conduct’ even without Legislature’s backing.
Character
Character is one of the essential attributes of human being.
It is generally defined as the collective qualities that reside within an individual especially mental and moral that distinguishes one person from the other.
19. Strength of character
It is a measure of how much a person can persevere in adverse circumstances and stand against wrong actions and deeds.
It is determined by how strongly or weakly does one believes and adheres to certain values. It stands to test in the face of hardships.
This strength helps a civil servant to firmly say no to anyone’s ill demands that may go against the law or interests of general public. Ex: During riots, passing of tenders, work during disasters and so on.
20. Tolerance
Tolerance refers to a permissive attitude towards those whose opinions, practices, religion and nationality, etc., differing from one’s own.
It is the act or capacity of enduring the diversity of views and practices in our environment. It is based on the idea of how to live together in peace and harmony with one another despite dissenting view points. Tolerance upholds human rights of dignified life and rule of law.
Public officials need to be secular in outlook. To do this, value of tolerance is necessary. Tolerance also means being open to diverse views which is fundamental in our constitution.
Ex : All India services calls upon civil servants to serve culturally different people. A Punjabi civil servant may find it difficult to serve in South India if he does not have aptitude of tolerance
Importance of tolerance for civil servants
Serve people from different language, religion, states
Reduce biasedness
Ensure peace and harmony in the society
However, a civil servant must never be tolerant towards corruption, crime and other anti-social elements of the society
Working and living in culturally different societies will make one much tolerant.
Interacting with different set of people in your locality,
Daily introspection for 15 mins
Writing one’s experiences daily in a diary, will help us keep in check the violent reactions in us. f. Practice thought evaluation.
Try working on something where you have to be part of a team, and communicate with each other to get the job done.
A calm mind is essential for accepting diverse views. Meditation and physical exercise is helping me to remain calm
Quote : Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom : Viktor Frankyl
E.g. In our college, we used to celebrate festivals of all religions with equal vigour. It inculcated inclusivity and more happinness to all
3. Anonymity
Bureaucrat is supposed to work behind the curtain and avoid media limelight and public gaze.
He’ll not get credit for the success and he’ll not be blamed for the failure. It’ll be responsibility of the political executive to handle all the applaud and criticism.
E.g. Mundhra deal scam (1957): Chagla commission held that Minister T.T.Krishnamachari is constitutionally responsible for the actions of his secretary (H.M.Patel)- he can’t take shelter behind them or disown reasonability.” Consequently, Minister resigned
Benefits of anonymity
Conduct rules
Maintain neutraility
suited best to the principles of parliamentary democracy. It is the elected leaders/ministers who enjoy the praises and accept the consequences for a policy
anonymity allows civil servants to furnish free and fair advice without the fear of adverse consequences. E.g., victimization after change of government is possible in absence of bureaucratic anonymity
insulate the civil servants from the lure of money and gratification. E.g., lobby of businessmen influencing the process of framing tax laws
4. Conduct rules providing anonymity
He shall guard the official secrets.
Shall not make any public utterance that would embarrass relations between Union and state or between two countries.
He should not criticise any policy of government.
Needs government permission before publishing book or appearing on TV. Without government permission, he must not accept any honour, ceremony, meeting, rally held in his honour.
Suppose press has made some remarks against him for his official conduct. He cannot file defamation suit against them or make press statements, without government permission. This ensures discipline, decorum and moral of the services.
5. Arguments against anonymity
Often ministers come up with populist schemes with unattainable targets and then blames officers for not implementing it faithfully.
Ministers openly criticises bureaucrats but bureaucrats can’t defend because norms of anonymity. Still they have to face the people protesting against the state.
Norm of anonymity will stop him from approaching media. And still if he approaches media, he will be further persecuted for violating the service norms.
22. Selflessness
It means to put others before oneself to the extent of having little or no concern for one’s life, money, position etc.
The job of civil servant demands that public concerns be the top priority. There might be situations where an official has to give up family time at a stretch in order to fulfil professional responsibilities.
Further, selflessness helps in building an organization of integrity and honesty.
E.g. : Sh. Nitin Gadkari ordered to demolish the house of his own mother-in-law because it was coming in the way of a highway project. He showed objectivity in his actions and selflessness in the conduct
E.g. Swarochish Somvamshi AC Donation
23. Courage
a. Courage is the virtue that enables a person to restrain fear in the face of danger, difficulty or doubt. As Nelson Mandela put it, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it”. b. E.g. Sam Manekshaw during 1971 War.
Courage enables people to face tough consequences for their acts. For instance whistleblowers like Edward Snowden often pay heavy price for disclosures.
Without courage it is difficult to display qualities like leadership which entails laying out roadmaps for the future amidst uncertainty. For example it is courage that enabled Mahatma Gandhi to display the virtue of non-violence against the oppressive colonial regime.
It encourages people to take firm decisions and attempt things that they have not tried before. For instance, it takes courage to invest in novel & seemingly impractical/commercially unviable ideas like the SpaceX.
Various personal, social and professional feats are unthinkable without courage. Without courage, Raja Rammohan roy would not have fought against Sati.
Courage is not just dramatic physical heroism. Life provides daily opportunities and instances of courageous acts like standing up for injustice, supporting cleanliness in public places, standing up for rights of minorities, women, etc. However, it must be borne in mind that courage must stay within limits defined by reason
24. Non-partisanship and impartiality
○ Non-partisan in public administration means not to side with any group, especially with political groups and parties. Decisions should be based on evidence and for ensuring maximum public welfare and not a specific entity.
○ Impartiality means that civil servants in carrying out their official work, including functions like procurement, recruitment, delivery of services etc, should take decisions based on merit alone.
25. Importance of above for civil servants
Reduce trust deficit
Improve legitimacy of conduct. For example, in conduct of an election process, public will measure the legitimacy of an election on basis of actual integrity of administration. c. Stregthen democracy
Organisation’s credibility.
It strongly attracts pre-requisites of noble administration like transparency and honesty.
Improve public participation in governance
28. How to ensure non-partisanship
a. Maintaining contact only at professional level with industrialist, builders, NGOs, politicians etc., b. Regulate gift taking from businessmen, etc.
Ensuring transparency via a website for my department where all decisions and reasons for taking the decision will be uploaded real time.
Ensuring accountability by assigning time bound tasks to officers and monitoring the progress.
Citizens participation via 24×7 helpline and regular meetings with civil society.
Creating a citizen’s charter which will be derived from the ethics implicit in the constitution and which will serve as guideline in cases where the law is ambiguous.
34. Activism
It signifies a bold, fearless and upright civil servant. A civil servant must show boldness to protest against the immoral decisions of their political masters.
His obligation to the constitution must override his loyalty to the government.
Ex: Sri Lakshmi, 2g scam, Durga Shakti Nagpal.
35. Honesty
Quality of being truthful and sincere
Person believes in speaking truth at all costs
There is no more fundamental ethical value than honesty. We associate honesty with people of honour, and we admire and rely on those who are honest. Honesty involves both communications and conduct.
Honesty precludes all acts, including half truths, out of context statements, and even silence during times of moral crisis.
E.g. Sachin Tendulkar walking off the crease even when given not out by Umpire
36. Integrity
Integrity means the ability of an individual to remain consistent and committed to his/her personal and professional values.
A person with integrity will always have harmony between thoughts, words and actions. This builds strong character of person
It means that one adheres to ethical and moral values, code of conduct and code of ethics. It is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
Choosing the right, regardless of the consequence, is the hallmark of integrity.
How one acts when no one is looking defines her integral behaviour
Integrity include
Soundness of moral principles.
Uprightness.
Honesty and sincerity.
Synchronisation between one’s thought, speech and action.
Loyalty to rational principles.
Significance in civil services
Civil servants have huge discretion in decision making
Ensure follow of code of conduct and code of ethics
Public trust
Sense of justice
Counter corruption
Utilisation of public resources
Importance for good governance
A person of integrity do his/her duties with conscience.
E.g. Policeman ordered to fire on unarmed peaceful protestors. Honest policeman will obey the order. Policeman of integrity, will refuse to fire.
How to inculcate integrity
Through training.
Through institutional structure such as laws, rules and regulation. 2nd ARC recommends setting up code of ethics for all departments of the government. Ex: Speaker will monitor how many times parliament was disrupted, a committee will monitor it and report will be published.
Practicing emotional intelligence
Select random officer and try to bribe him. This is not same as CBI/ACB raid, they want to flush out corrupt people. But integrity testing is done to establish honesty.
If young recruit’s first posting is made under honest officer, then he’s more like to remain honest for the rest of his life because of mentoring by a good role model.
Probity
Probity means integrity, uprightness and honesty.
Probity is the quality of having strong moral principles and strictly following them. It includes principles such as – honesty, integrity, uprightness, transparency and incorruptibility. Probity is confirmed integrity. It is usually regarded as being incorruptible
Maintaining probity in governance involves more than simply avoiding corrupt or dishonest conduct.
It means ethical behaviour that upholds public values and ensures impartiality, accountability and transparency which, in turn, gives people confidence to participate in the Governance process.
Accountability
Accountability refers to the process as well as norms that make decision makers answerable to ones for whom decisions are taken i.e., the decision maker and the beneficiary
Accountability lead to the obligation of an individual or an organisation (either in the public or the private sectors) to accept responsibility for their activities, and to disclose them in a transparent manner.
This includes the responsibility for decision-making processes, money or other entrusted property.
Responsibility
1. Being responsible means being in charge of our choices and our lives. It means being accountable for what we do and who we are. It is a moral obligation. Ethical people show responsibility by being accountable, pursuing excellence and exercising self restraint. They exhibit the ability to respond to expectations.
44. National interest
1. A civil servant would keep in view the impact of his action on his nation’s strength and prestige.
45. Justice
Justice is fairness in protection of rights and punishment of wrongs. Reformative justice places emphasis on reforming the offender. It doesn’t not believe in proportionate punishments like death penalty. Retributive justice demands proportional punishment for the crimes committed.
They believe criminals must pay for their crimes. Ex: Death penalty.
I believe in reformative justice. To err is human and our society should try to reform the offenders and give them a second chance to redeem themselves. No correlation between retributive justice and reduction in crime rate. This defeats purpose of justice.
There is a difference between law and justice. The essence of law is its force. Law is law because it carries the means to coerce or force obedience. The power of the state is behind it. The essence of justice is fairness. Any system of laws functions through a hierarchy of authorities.
Justice for a public servant is redressing the problems of an aggrieved citizen in an effective, efficient and equitable way.
46. Ways to ensure justice
By being honest and impartial and avoiding nepotism.
By being empathetic and compassionate towards each aggrieved person and addressing their problems within a time limit.
By following code of conduct and code of ethics while discharging my duties.
By being transparent and accountable to my actions.
By building social capital with all stake holders to bridge the trust deficit.
Extras
Fidelity:
It is defined as faithfulness to obligations and duties.
Correspondence with fact or with a given quality and adherence to truth are vital for maintaining fidelity.
A public servant is expected to be at all times a trustworthy person in the public services. An unfaithful public servant tarnishes the image of the entire system.
Rapprochement: Establishing cordial relations with employees and other people who have direct relationship with the organisation.
Equanimity: It is a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experiences of good or bad, pain or pleasure, or other phenomenon that may cause the normal people to lose the balance of their mind.
Rationality: It is a concept which believes in the use of reason which is detached with passions, emotions and beliefs. If our personal beliefs or sentiments are not in conformity with rationality, they should not prevail over rationality. It means bringing out a practical solution to a practical situation.
Apathy: Lack of interest or concern. It is a state of indifference or not showing concern, motivation, excitement, passion etc. Being indifferent towards others problems, towards systemic lapses, towards progressive change
Dedication
Dedication is the highest form of commitment. Dedication suggests that one is devoted even when though there is no formal commitment.
Ex: Police officers not registering the crime case if it is not in his area. He do not want to take extra responsibility. Although he is committed, he has no dedication towards crime free society.
47. Diligence
Diligence is the quality of showing perseverance in carrying out the work while showing careful attention to each and every detail.
This quality is indispensable to every civil servant considering the complexity of work and great responsibility which comes with it.
For example, in order to implement the anti-corruption laws in a district administration where corruption is a way of life one needs to be very careful and attentive with strong will to carry out the task.
An example of diligent is a worker who always stays late to get projects done on deadline. An example of diligent is the artist who paints every strand of hair on a portrait.
Ex : In a cricket match, even when you know that your team is certainly going to lose from a particular situation, but still you bat/bowl/field at your best till the last ball.
But it is difficult to inculcate value of diligence since modern life tends to value comfort more than hard work. Too many people want to put out minimum effort for maximum pay.
48. How to inculcate diligence
By role modelling: There have been various public personalities who showed exemplary quality of diligence in their public conduct. Ex: Sreedharan. Such personalities should be made role model for civil servants by making them aware of their lives. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Dr. Verghese Kurien
Social recognition: Giving recognition and rewards to individuals who practices such quality will provide motivation to fellow civil servants to adopt such values.
Giving adequate autonomy: Freedom from political pressure will provide the civil servant to actively engage in his work.
Providing adequate resources: Diligence not only require individual will but resource in form of information and means to carry out the task. Provision of adequate resources will create conducive condition for inculcation of diligence as practical value.
Intuition refers to the ability to acquire knowledge about things without reasoning or usage of reasoning in general. It is often conceived as a kind of inner perception. Ex: Gandhi started salt satyagraha and Quit India movement through his intuition of grasping the situation.
Ex : MS Dhoni on the field sometimes plays on intuition which he developed by experience. He is able to predict the action of a batter on a certain delivery sets the field accordingly
It develops with age, sometimes maturity, sometimes with experience, in some with intellect. It teaches, guides and motivates us.
We experience Deja-vu’s because our intuition might have felt it or comprehended it much before.
50. Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or diligent.
Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. It implies a desire to do a task well. Conscientious people are efficient and organised as opposed to easy going and disorderly.
31. Prudence
○ Prudence is the ability to govern one’s behaviour by the use of reason.
○ It is often associated with wisdom, insight and knowledge. Prudence avoids extreme actions and focuses on middle path as suggested by Buddhism.
○ All other virtues are regulated by it. Distinguishing when acts are courageous, as opposed to reckless is an act of prudence. Ex: Irwin pact, Gandhi calling off non-cooperation movement.
51. Temperance
It is defined as moderation or voluntary self-restraint. This includes restraint from retaliation in the form of non-violence and forgiveness, restraint from arrogance in the form of humility and modesty and restraint from excessive anger or craving for something in the form of calmness and self control.
Ex : Calling off NCM after the chauri chaura incident
Buddhism talks about taking middle path in all actions. This is nothing but following temperance in one’s action.
52. Social accountability
Social accountability is a process in which ordinary citizens or civil society participate in extracting accountability. It does not rely on Government institutions to extract accountability of one another. Conventional methods don’t involve public in defining standards and methods of accountability.
Conventional accountability mechanisms rely on government agencies to extract accountability. Internal mechanisms like departmental hierarchy are prone to biases, favouritism and quid pro quo. Also, conventional methods are of post-hoc nature i.e. they can look into the propriety of the actions of officials only after they are done.
53. Excellence
An administrator would ensure the highest standards of quality in decisions and action and would not compromise with standards because of convenience or complacency.
In a competitive international environment, an administrative system should faithfully adhere to
the requisites of total quality management (TQM).
E.g. Metro rail. Highways development by Road and Transport minister
54. Fusion
An administrator would rationally bring about a fusion of individual, organisational and social goals to help evolve unison of ideals and imbibe in his behaviour a commitment to such a fusion.
In the situation of conflicting goals, a concern for ethics should govern the choices made.
55. Red tapism
Red tape is excessive regulation or rigid conformity to rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision making. It is applied to governments, corporations and other large organisations.
This unchecked growth may continue independently of the organisation’s success or failure. Through bureaucratic inertia, organisations tend to take on a life of their own beyond their formal objectives.
56. Magnanimity
Magnanimity is a quality of being kind, generous and forgiving. Person filled by magnanimity do not seek revenge. Mahatma Gandhi chose magnanimity over revenge as his guide for making his decisions. Ex: According to christianity Jesus gave his life for benefit of human kind.
Civil servants sometimes work in very adverse and hostile circumstances. In those critical houses, they are supposed to forget their personal interests and issues and work towards happiness of people. Ex: Nelson Mandela did not show any retribution against white people when he became president.
57. Reliability
Reliable persons are more trusted than an unreliable person. By making a promise to someone we are making ourself morally accountable to them, and by not keeping up we are doing morally incorrect thing.
We should interpret your promises fairly and honestly and avoid unwise commitments. Think about unknown or future events that could make it difficult, undesirable or impossible.
58. Perseverance
Steady persistence in adhering to a cause of action, a belief or a purpose etc., in spite of difficulties or discouragement. Medicine is a field which requires dedication and perseverance.
Two greatest obstacles for people to overcome in life are failures and fatigue. Failures may demotivate a person and might deviate his path. Fatigue may cause boredom and may reduce effectiveness. Thus perseverance is necessary to overcome both fatigue and failure. Ex: Leaders of national struggle.
Intellectual integrity
It is defined as recognition of the need to be true to one’s own thinking and to hold oneself to the
same standards one expects others to meet. It is to practice what one advocates to others and to honestly admit discrepancies and inconsistencies in one’s own thoughts and action.
For example, if you succeed, you’d say you worked hard. If someone else succeeds, you’d attribute it to his good luck. That shows lack of intellectual integrity, because you’re not evaluating everything on same parameter. Suppose if a husband lied to her wife about something important, then his behaviour lacks integrity.
59. Caring
If you existed alone in the universe, there would be no need for ethics and your heart could be a cold, hard stone. Caring is the heart of ethics, and ethical decision making.
It is scarcely possible to be truly ethical and yet unconcerned with the welfare of others. That is because ethics is ultimately about good relations with other people.
Of course, sometimes we must hurt those we truly care for, and some decisions, while quite ethical, do cause pain. But one should consciously cause no more harm than is reasonably necessary to perform one’s duties.
The highest form of caring is the honest expression of benevolence, or altruism. This is not to be confused with strategic charity. Gifts to charities to advance personal interests are a fraud. That is, they aren’t gifts at all. They are investments or tax write offs.
60. Forgiving
To err is human, to forgive is divine. Everyone makes mistakes, commit sins at some point in their life. It’s a human nature to make mistakes. But to forgive someone from those mistakes is indeed very hard. It doesn’t happens naturally like making a mistake. People are acting in a godlike (divine) way when they forgive. One almost have to be in a real holy place in their mind to forgive someone.
It is morally correct to forgive such a person who accepts his mistake and promises not to repeat it. It is so because someone is showing courage and honesty by accepting his mistake with a promise of not repeating. His thoughts are noble and gestures are right. Forgiving him will help in making him a better human being.
Lord Rama showed no hatred against his stepmother, Kaikeyi, for sending him to the forest for fourteen years so that her son, Bharat, could be the king.
All of us are humans. We all have our weaknesses and strength. No one is perfect. So when someone does a wrong to us, why can’t we forgive them. Forgiving that person brings out the god like nature that lies in human. It is not very easy to do it but once we truly forgive someone for his mistake we will feel an inner peace.
61. Trust
Trust means that you rely on someone else to do the right thing. You believe in the person’s integrity and strength, to the extent that you are able to put yourself on the line at some risk to yourself.
Simply refraining from deception is not enough. Trustworthiness is the most complicated of the six core ethical values and concerns a variety of qualities like honesty, integrity, reliability and loyalty.
A team without trust isn’t really a team. It’s just a group of individuals, working together, often making disappointing progress. They may not share information, they might battle over rights and responsibilities, and they may not cooperate with one another.
It doesn’t matter how capable or talented your people are, they may never reach their full potential if trust isn’t present.
Trust is essential to an effective team, because it provides a sense of safety. When your team members feel safe with each other, they feel comfortable to open up, take appropriate risks.
When trust is in place, each individual in the team becomes stronger, because he or she is part of an effective, cohesive group. When people trust one another, the group can achieve truly meaningful goals.
62. Strategies for building trust
Don’t make unrealistic promises. Always fulfill the promises made. Walk the talk once a promise is made.
If you want to build trust within your team, then lead by example, and show your people that you trust them.
You cant be honest to one person and dis-honest to others. Maintain integrity in building trust.
Speak truth as a matter of habit. A single lie to a friend or loved ones can break all trust forever.
One way to build trust is to develop inter-personal relations among colleagues. Think about creating situations that help them share personal stories, and bond. Do this by asking sensitively about their family, etc
Don’t place blame on others. When people work together, honest mistakes and disappointments happen, and it’s easy to blame someone who causes these. However, when everyone starts pointing fingers, an unpleasant atmosphere can quickly develop. This lowers morale, undermines trust, and is ultimately unproductive.
