The little black book of success by Elaine Meryl Brown

Author:Elaine Meryl Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: African American women -- Employment, Success in business -- United States, African American women executives, African American leadership
ISBN: 0345518500
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2010-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

The Values You Were Raised with in ChurchAren't Always Valued in Business

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.Turn the other cheek.

he Golden Rule, The Ten Commandments, and other para-bles and teachings from the Bible are among the valuessome of us grew up with in church. And you don't have to be Chris-tian to share these basic principles. But what are the proper param-eters of religious beliefs in deciding what's right for oneself in thebusiness environment and in respecting what's right for the corpo-ration as a whole?

In general, it's in the company's best interest to be ethical be-cause it's important to its function as an organization, to its integrity,its reputation in the marketplace, its ability to attract and retain thebest and the brightest employees, and to be competitive and main-tain its standing in the community. But don't get it twisted: Theethics of business are different from the ethics of religion.

If you accept that navigating a corporate environment is a"game," the nature of "game" automatically calls for competitionand distrust of the other players. After all, the object of the game isto win. Subsequently, you are not in the game with your friends, bill

70 THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF SUCCESS

rather opponents, and as in poker or bid whist, there are times whenyou must conceal your own strengths, knowledge, and intentions.Bending the rules, using them to your advantage, manipulating thetruth, exaggerating a story, inflating the numbers—these are therules of the game, the standards of right and wrong that differ fromwhat you learn in Sunday school or from the pulpit on Sundaymornings. Similarly, a mother's message to "be nice" or "forgive andforget" (in business you should forgive, but never forget), can havebenefits in your personal life, but have negative consequences foryou at work as you pursue your leadership position.

Biblical principles sometimes collide with business ethics. Forexample, telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,may translate in the business world as "telling the half-truth," "with-holding the whole truth," or telling the little white lie—making up a"new truth" for the sake of a better business strategy, solution, or re-sult. In business telling the whole truth could mean missing an op-portunity to make a killing by generating as much profit as possible,closing a deal, creating a strategic partnership, or successfully sell-ing and marketing a product. In other words, truth telling as welearned it may put you at a major disadvantage in business deal-ings.

However, you draw the line. How far you push it will depend onwhether or not you feel your decision will cause you to lose self-respect, personal integrity, sleep, or weigh heavily on your con-science. No one is going to want you to generate hostility ordeliberately create ill-will, but you will be tested. Even though busi-nesses will tend to respect your religion, if you allow religion tolimit your thinking in the workplace, chances are the workplace willlimit your opportunities for growth.

You can still be a good person within an organization, but therewill be times when your moral values may be called into question.

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