Integrity and Professionalism

 It is important to be able to rely on the people around you. 

If everyone has a hidden agenda that’s not to your benefit, then just getting through the basics of life is complicated. You have to be constantly on your guard, and you have to be quickly reactive to whatever growing problem they set off. That feeds an instability which kinda sucks.

What underpins stability and the confidence to rely on the future comes from a solid foundation. Two critical components of that foundation are integrity and professionalism. 

Integrity is mostly an internal attribute. Some people mean well and try not to rock the boat or cause unnecessary problems for others. They are trying to be honest and working hard to not play games. Basically, it’s not being sneaking, but wanting to be clear and upfront with people, so that they don’t get the wrong impressions or have suspicions about your motives. They are just trying to be nice, decent people, that mean well towards others.

Professionalism is when that extends to the work you are doing. If you have the knowledge and training, and you start some piece of work with full concentration and ensure that it is done correctly, that is a professional demeanor. If you are also courteous and explain any issues, then it is better. Either way, if someone tasks you do something that is reasonable they can be assured that you’ll get the job done within an acceptable time frame. If what they are asking has issues, you’ll inform them in advance, and let them know what they can expect.

While these are often seen as just personal attributes, they extend to all other organizations as well. Basically, companies, countries, social groups, etc. all have a personality too, and they act as a super-organism. For people, they might be having an off day, for organizations you might encounter a rogue member, but the same attributes apply. You can judge an organization on the way it mostly behaves, the same way you might react to people.

Bad behavior is contagious. The best-known example is littering, where it is believed that people are much more likely to litter if the ground is already full of litter. That tends toward being true for most other bad behaviors as well. Corruption encourages corruption, violence builds up, and if most people are being horrible and sneaky and selfish, other people get pulled into that behavior too. A society left out of control will quickly descend into chaos, with everyone just looking out for themselves. It’s so pervasive in human behavior that it might actually be deeply hardwired into the species. 

The opposite is true but to a lesser effect. Doing a good deed of the day, for example, is a little contagious. It doesn’t affect as many people, and it doesn’t last as long. Still, it does carry through somewhat. And it’s that attribute that is so important. One of the key reasons to act with integrity and to be professional when working is that you would prefer that that is how others act around you. If you set an example, people do tend to follow.

If you work in a dog-eat-dog environment with everyone out for themselves, the environment itself is horrible and draining. Well, some tiny number of people find it fun and exciting, but the rest of humanity does not seem to feel that. So, if we don’t want that, one of the ways to help prevent it is to actively force yourself to rise above whatever is currently happening and to help lift everyone else too. 

Knowing that good behavior is somewhat contagious really helps. Your valiant efforts to make things better around you aren’t wasted, they just take a lot longer to kick in then the dark side. And knowing that the bulk of people would prefer it your way, it’s just a matter of time and constantly reminding people to try and be a little bit better each day. Bad people rely on the rest of us turning away, good ones rely on us all making small little constant positive contributions.

Aside from trying to make your own life and working environment better, we can actually use this knowledge to improve the overall world. For one, we can try to avoid dealing with or enabling any bad actors. If they don’t act with integrity or professionalism, then it is worth putting a bit of effort into figuring out how to avoid them. It doesn’t have to be a major cause or some moral battle, just the notion that if there are at least a few choices between different vendors than it is far better to take the better one, even if there is a financial reason to take the other. 

That is, a lack of integrity or a lack of professionalism should beat out price as a disincentive. The horrible company may be a bit cheaper, but they are a horrible company, so why give them power or enable them? Spend a little bit more to get a better world. 

The corollary to integrity and professionalism is that prologued dealings with shady people tend to taint it. That is, if you spend all of your time in the company of horrible people, eventually you’ll become a horrible person yourself, little by little. So, we do have a choice and an effect on the world around us. You can spend some small effort, now and then, to make sure that you are not enabling the dark side, and in exchange, the world gets a tiny bit better. Or you can not worry about it, chase the best deals for yourself regardless of who is offering them, and watch the world grow worse.