Personal Honour, what is is worth?
Definition – Honour, is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valour, chivalry, honesty, and compassion.
Without a doubt, we are living through testing times, some may say only the strong will survive, but is that in body, soul, spirit or mind? We live in a complex society and I have seen some incredibly generous actions, but I’ve also seen some hideously selfish behaviour, not driven by need but by opportunity, position, strength or simple greed.
In the recruitment industry, I’ve heard of whole teams agreeing to go on half salaries, waive their quarterly commissions that were due, even before furloughing came in. All in the spirit of keeping the company they work for in business, to keep their jobs yes, but also to support their employers, who had been generous and honourable in the past.
I’ve also seen people strip supermarket shelves of rice and pasta as well as other foodstuffs, leaving nothing for others. It is pure selfishness at work when older customers are struggling to get to the supermarket and get the basic items they need.
The UK Government and even Facebook ($100 million), are offering to support small businesses (SME’s), those that are most at risk at this time. What many small medium enterprises (SME’s) have to face even if they are healthy, robust, growing and profitable enterprises, is the total lack of revenue over the next 3 or 4 months. Even large enterprises will struggle and use any reserves they may have just to stay in the game, regardless of the industry or sector. Every country will have different schemes to help and not all will be equal. Many companies are global and the net effect will be across all staff in every country.
This is a time we should all be pulling together, helping each other, supporting each other, just like the Government, in its way. This is a time for honour, a time of fairness.
Can you say that you have acted with a true sense of honour? With a true and fair code of conduct and with a strong personal ethos, towards others? Or are you ashamed in reading this, knowing in your heart you’re just a taker, taking advantage of others for your own gain?
Old fashioned values?
You may feel these are old fashioned values and morals, but these are still the codes that we are judged by and all live by and anything less is simply unacceptable. It’s what our parents taught us to do, what they expect us to do, “treat others as you would like others to treat you” it’s regarded as a Golden rule, it’s considered an ethic of reciprocity, one of our earliest and fundamental ethics.
No one expects everyone to be to be a saint, however, some have been saintly, but we all expect to be dealt with, with a sense of fairness, openness and honesty. I like to think I’ve always lived my life with a sense of honour, but I’ve certainly experienced others with and without any, as I am sure you have as well. I found it or the lack of it, in business recently, someone who pretends to be fair when it suits them, offers honour by degrees to save face but clearly has no real honour. For those that don’t abide by this code, all we can hope is that they will get what they truly deserve in the future, they can’t easily hide their actions. Someone will see and know what they have done and how they have acted.
Choice
We are not born good or bad, mean or generous, we all make choices every day about who we are, who we want to be, whether to be a giver or a taker, what attitude we take towards things and other people. Attitudes can change, we all know that. Now is as good a time as any to change and be fair if not generous, be more compassionate, gracious, simply kinder. I’m a big guy, I can be loud apparently, especially when I get upset, I hate injustice or rudeness (I’m not perfect myself) and it often makes me loud. I’ve generally got a thick skin. ‘Life is short, let it pass’ but one often reaches a point where we see red, so let’s all learn to push it down and ‘let it pass’ especially with friends, family and colleagues.
I know it’s a big ask, but I would ask everyone to help each other whenever possible, especially during these difficult times. Be generous of spirit, you don’t know what other people are dealing with, so be kind, don’t take advantage just because you can. If your spirit is not as pure as you would like, put it aside, and be fair with all those you have dealings with during these difficult times. Make the right choices.
About the Author
Howard Longstaff, has over 25 years’ experience delivery people within the talent acquisition arena. Howard has worked extensively across the UK, Europe, USA, Canada as well as in South America, Australia and New Zealand.
In the last 20 years he has built companies and opened offices in New Zealand, Los Angeles, New York and most recently several companies in London. Specialising in technology companies, delivering both permanent resources across practically every department– and building teams of contractors on three continents. This has predominantly been for technology start-ups but also for many leading management consulting and enterprise clients.
He is a fly fisherman (mainly trout) in his spare time as well as making his own flies and very much a fisherman in business, always looking for that elusive exceptional catch.