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What makes you an ethical person? Were you born that way or was it something that you learned? In approaching an ethical dilemma, do you weigh the benefits versus the consequences or do you approach it from a black and white, moralistic point of view? At the most foundational level of your ethics and character, the question is: What makes you tick?

Did you suddenly decide that discrimination was wrong because you took a diversity-training course? Absolutely not! You already knew that it was morally wrong and unfair to treat people differently. Did you suddenly decide that theft was wrong after watching a training video? Of course not! You've always known that stealing is wrong. These are no-brainers. The reason you don't harass coworkers is because you know that these behaviors are morally and ethically wrong. But how did you know they were wrong before the training video told you? Where did your natural sense of ethics come from? Is it still there?

What makes the racist, thief, or harasser different is that they have either lost their internal sense of appropriate moral and ethical behavior or they've rejected it all together. Assuming that you haven't rejected it, the question remains: What makes you ethical? The reason you need to ask yourself this is because having a properly functioning moral compass requires you to get your core values straightened out.

Having a sense of intrinsic honesty helps you judge ethical dilemmas not by emotion or circumstance but by core values. This is important because you might be an ethically challenged person, who needs to get grounded, or you may be someone who's got your act together but needs a little extra support during a tough situation. Either way, you need to take some time to ask yourself "why do you do what you." Your goal should be to have a natural, intrinsic sense of ethics that can be relied upon in times of trouble and chaos.

Of course, once you've dug deep by asking, "Why do I do what I do?" then you've got to deal with the stuff that comes to the surface. Your soul-searching may produce more questions than answers. You may answer, "I don't know" or you may find so many past mistakes that you question your ability to be ethical at all. The purpose is not to live in the past but to find a starting point to move into the future. In order to move forward, you must shore up your core values so you can build character and an intrinsic sense of honesty.

Intrinsic honesty is not just for the saints but is for everyone. You have to want it and you have to choose it. With intrinsic honesty in play, the ethics training you receive at work will mean something. Ethics will become more than minimally following the rules or staying out of trouble. It will be a natural byproduct of your everyday life. It will happen seamlessly as a result of your showing up for work and doing what you normally do.

If you want to become intrinsically honest, you can't spend too much time sitting on the fence. You have to ask probing questions and then get off the fence in order to have ethical decisiveness. This doesn't mean that you act morally superior to others. On the contrary, getting off the moral fence and taking a stand should be a positive contribution to the work environment and not a negative one. For the most part, your effects on others are indirect. The primary focus of change will be you.

But what if nobody listens or nobody cares? What about a workplace where dishonesty is rampant? You might work in a place where dishonesty is commonplace or have supervisors who lie or pressure employees to behave unethically. Although you should do everything in your power to restore an ethical work environment, you mustn't hop back on the fence or go backward ethically. Oil and water don't mix. There comes a time when you need to separate yourself from the environment and find a place that supports your good ethical values.

So, it gets down to nature or nurture. Or does it? Seeing where you've come from is just as important as knowing where you're going. By understanding what makes you tick, you are setting the stage for new levels of personal growth. Getting to a place where your ethical decision-making is an automatic function of your character is a good place to be. Your employer's ethics training can be effective in laying down ethical workplace standards but the training shouldn't be anything different from the basic ethical principles you've believed in all along.