Be
a hero.
Save
the day.
Aunt
May told Peter Parker that there was a hero
in all of us. Every individual has an internal viewpoint of the kind of
hero they would like to be. Heroes are great benefactors of mankind and we need
heroes so that we can have someone to emulate in shaping our identity. As
heroes shape their own codes of ethics, they, in turn, shape society.
That
being said, a hero is a leader and as every individual longs to be a hero they
wish to be a leader. Grasping the importance of ethical leadership in the world
is quite simple: We need leaders with good ethics so that we may shape
ourselves and in turn shape others. This dissemination of morality is the
precursor to peace. The problem lies in the fact that when we unbutton our
shirts, there isn’t a symbol of morality on our chests.
The
PRSA’s Code of Ethics sets the foundation of ethics for each professional. When
you are in trouble and face moral hurdles you have somewhere to turn – but that
is the problem: somewhere, not someone. There will be times when you will
be faced with a problem and will be required to act immediately, and in that
time it will be far easier to ask yourself what
would my hero of choice do? It is when you stand apart from everyone else’s
point of reference and take matters into your own hand that you become a
leader, not a follower.
Not
just leadership, but servant leadership is a requirement in building your own
code of ethics. Why? The foundation of servant leadership is empathy - a
quality which the PRSA Code of Ethics forgets to add to their overall
structure. Empathy is just as important in organizational communication as it
is in the changing of the world. Without empathy we can each shape our own
personal code of ethics without considering the ultimate good of humankind.
What this means is that both heroes and villains adhere to their own code of
ethics, but only one of the two serves eudaimonia.
This
is the missing piece to the PRSA’s Code of Ethics. Before the PRSA’s Code of
Ethics asked the professional to serve both the public and the organization – a
man cannot serve two masters without some internal guiding principle that can
aid them in times when they were required to choose one over the other. This
small revision forces the individual to look internally when making a decision
and, when exercised, will be a reference point more easily accessible than the
Code of Ethics itself. Additionally, while the public relations professional's
mind is shaped to benefit the organization, their heart, so to speak, will be
shaped to benefit those individuals around them – the public. That is where we
will find the hero in all of us.
References
Davenport, G. (2014, August 3). Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuphbBv4vDg
Britannica, E. (n.d.). Eudaemonism. Retrieved October 20, 2016. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/eudaemonism#ref273308
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