Character & Personality Ethics

CHARACTER & PERSONALITY ETHICS

Character Primary Ethic – Belief that success is based on basic principles of effective living.  People experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.  Character ethic is foundational and catalytic and the core of it encompasses the following principles which enables to us to develop value-based motives.

o       Integrity

o       Humility

o       Fidelity

o       Temperance

o       Courage

o       Justice

o       Patience

o       Industry

o       Simplicity

o       Golden Rule

“Search your own heart with diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life.”

Vs.

Personality Secondary Ethic – Belief that success is more a function of personality, of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, of skills and techniques that lubricate the processes of human interaction. The personality ethic focuses on social image consciousness, quick fixes, techniques, image building, social band aids and social aspirin that masks chronic problems and only address acute problems which may seem to be fixed but only resurface again and again to become chronic.

Human & Public Relations Techniques

• Developing techniques to get other people to like you – NOT Beneficial
• Faking interest in the hobbies of others in order to get them to do what you want -  NOT Beneficial
• Using “The Power Look” to intimidate – NOT Beneficial
• Learning to intimidate your way through life – NOT Beneficial
• Learning manipulative techniques to influence people – NOT Beneficial
• Learning ‘Power’ strategies – Possibly Beneficial
• Education in the field of ‘Influence Strategies’ – Beneficial Secondary Trait
• Personality Growth – Beneficial Secondary Trait
• Communication Skill Training – Beneficial Secondary Trait
• Forming Image Building Ideas  - Beneficial Secondary Trait
• Acknowledging character as an ‘ingredient’ of success but only compartmentalizing it - NOT Beneficial

Positive Mental Attitude – PMA

• Maxims or Sayings:

ü ‘Your attitude determines your altitude’

ü  ‘Smiling wins more friends than frowning’

ü  ‘Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve’

• Developing and using strategies to build positive attitude – Beneficial Secondary Trait
• Embracing Motivational ideologies to rev yourself up and create impetus – Beneficial Secondary Trait

PRIMARY Vs. SECONDARY GREATNESS

ü  We may have become so focused on our own skill building that we are devoid of the foundation that holds all of it up. Trying to use human influence strategies and tactics to get other people to work better, be more motivated and to like each other without exuding the core-values foundation of integrity, and the ‘golden rule’ will only be seen as duplicitous and insincere, and will never be successful in the long run.

ü  Duplicity breeds distrust and in the end, everything that you are trying to achieve will be perceived as manipulative.  It makes no difference how good the intentions or how wonderful the rhetoric; if there is little or no trust, the foundation has not been built for any kind of permanent success.

ü  Trust is the glue of life.  Only basic goodness gives life to technique. To focus on technique alone is like cramming your way through school.  You sometimes get by; maybe even get good grades, but if you don’t pay the price day in and day out, you will never achieve true mastery of the subject you study or develop an educated mind.

ü  Try cramming on a farm.  Everyone would agree; it’s ridiculous.  Forget to plant in the spring? Play all summer, then ‘cram’ in the fall to bring in the harvest?  The farm is a ‘natural system’.  The price must be paid and the ‘process’ followed. You reap what you sow.  There is no shortcut.  This principle is also true ultimately in human behavior and human relationships.

ü  Human relationships are also ‘natural systems’ based on the law of the harvest.  In an artificial social system such as work or school, you may be able to get by if you learn how to manipulate the ‘man-made’ rules to play the game.  In most short-lived human interactions, you can use the personality ethic to ‘get by’ and make favorable impressions through ‘charm’ and ‘skill’ and pretending to be interested in ‘other people’s hobbies’, etc.  You can pick up easy techniques that may work in short-term situations.  But secondary traits alone have no place or permanent worth in long-term relationships.

ü  Eventually, if there isn’t ‘deep integrity’ and fundamental character strength,  the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface and human relationship failure will always replace short term success.

ü  People who only possess the secondary greatness to, for instance, strive for social recognition, or recognition of their talents, or strive for wealth, or prestige; but lack primary greatness or goodness in their essential character, will see it affect every long term relationship they will ever have.  They eventually end up creating havoc and chaos involving everyone around them, because they are using technique alone. There is no primary greatness of character.  No character ethic. 

ü  Whether it is with a business associate, a spouse, a friend, or a coworker, it is only primary greatness of character that communicates eloquently. If there is not a core-values foundation to build upon; no matter how emotional or determined we actually feel while saying the words, they will always be superficial.  Manipulation, then, wins at being the only way we communicate.  Without primary greatness of character, trust and truth cannot thrive and any relationship, no matter how strong we think it is, will wither and eventually dissolve.

We seek to understand at www.HealthcareBusinessManagement.com