I had the most frustrating and difficult week of my professional life this past week. I have been in and out of corporate America for the better part of the last decade. Which is to say nothing of my time in the United States Senate. During that time I have had occasion to be involved in all types of ethical quandaries. Some involving me directly and others I watched at arms length. During all of those situations I felt that both sides of the equation had legitimate feelings and memories of the events in question. This position lead me to the conclusion that most, if not all, of these quandaries stemmed from a misunderstanding or miscommunication by one or both of the parties involved. This is week marked the first experience I have had where I truly fell like someone just out and out lied to further their position.
For legal reasons I am not going to go into the details of what happened this week. Suffice it to say their was an accusation made by one of my clients that I had purposely shared confidential financial information in effort thwart the sale of a business for my personal gain. Even if you know nothing of professional ethics or the laws governing banks regarding the confidential nature of someone financial information, I think it easy to grasp the gravity of the accusation.
Fortunately my named was cleared of any wrong doing at the bank. The client has been made whole and more or less all is well. But as it turns out, after all the dust has settled it is very obvious that the accusations made were a complete knee-jerk reaction to something the client did not like.
So get to the point! I now have a painful experience to bolster my conviction of the need for complete honesty and personal integrity. When our lives get tested in these areas the opportunity to do right is almost never convenient or easy. Dare I suggest it is more often a decision laced with fear and self doubt. But I promise you this, when you kick against the pricks of honesty your life and the lives of others are severally altered. And most of those times the alteration is negative.
Live honestly at all costs. And pray for the strength to do so.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Integrity and Honesty
Posted by Spano at 9:46 AM
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5 comments:
Spano man, you're giving us some intellectual cred with this article. You're a great writer. Keep it up. Remember, "I'm sick of being a pussy."
How can I forget that night. One of my brighter moments wouldn't you say?
Corporate America doesn't offer too many happy ending stories like this. Certainly they exist much more than is brought to light, but it's nice to hear it coming from you, Ronnow. Whatever the circumstances were, at the very least and at the end of a sucky week, you did the absolute most that could've been expected of you. Nice.
Also, it was good to see you at Xetava last month. We should all hang out when you get back to SG.
We should. I don't know when we are going to be back down. I will let you all know.
President Ronnow, way to class up the blog with the integrity and honesty post. I'm glad things worked out. I like the mantra of "I don't care what other people think, I just care what I know." However when you deal with accusations that you have to address, it makes it kinda dicey. I guess you could tell your client you hope the money was worth there salvation. That would make them feel sad. I've heard everyone has their sell-out point, but it is disappointing how low some people's points are these days.
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