Have you ever wondered how professional values and ethics can impact career success? Believe it or not, no matter what field you’re in, these two things are very important. Even people in careers where managers may often encourage you to lie to customers, such as in certain sales industries, values and ethics will get you a lot farther than a lack of them. The main reason for this is that people appreciate honesty. So many people are used to being lied to today that whenever someone is honest with them and open about it, it makes an impact that the customer does not forget. Nor do managers forget about this. Employees can lie to managers, too, and the ones who are honest are usually the ones who are relied on more and climb the ladder of success more quickly.

It is easy to think that professional values and ethics may serve you negatively in some cases. Suppose you really screwed up on a project at work. Wouldn’t it be easier to just blame it on someone else or on some outside factors that were beyond your control? Of course it would. But this one lie could eventually lead you to become more comfortable lying about more and more things at work. Soon, you become known as the person who always has an excuse…not obvious enough with the lying to fire, but nevertheless not reliable or trustworthy. These people do not get good assignments or promotions at work. 

In the case of customers, it may seem easier to lie to a customer to get a sale. However, think about whether your product or company is one the customer may want to use again. If you lie to the customer, he or she will soon find out. This means you’ve lost that customer for future sales. However, if you tell the truth about a product or service, even if the truth isn’t great, that customer will appreciate it and remember it, and will come back to you when he or she has need of your company’s offerings in the future. This can boost your career like nothing else.

This is the seventh installment in our jobs & careers series. Be sure to check back for updates…

Filed under: Jobs & Careers

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!