If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it, unless it is right

Make sure you are taking opportunities to learn and grow and also taking opportunities to challenge the status quo and do what is right.?

But what is right?

Right to you

What makes this really hard is: in today’s complex world, except when you’re referring to the opposite of left or a simple maths problem, there is usually no absolute right.?

With all the complexity and nuances of the world and the nature of society that has developed, it is very feasible and likely that two people can hold very opposing and conflicting views of what is right.

For the purposes of this topic, let’s consider ‘right’ to mean ‘what is right to you’ - according to your own principles and values. We should be very careful not to use this as an excuse to be selfish, or lazy, or to allow our values to slip; there’s far too much of this going on in the world at the moment and it's a trend we need to reverse.

We can help to rectify this by becoming more present, becoming more aware of our environment and the filters we and others view it through, disengaging from the spell of social media scrolling, regularly reviewing and reminding ourselves of our true values, and trying to leave things a little better than we find them in every situation we encounter. This will help us to better notice what is making us uncomfortable, and choose to act more effectively.

Are you avoiding discomfort or sacrificing your principles and values?

I encourage you to ask yourself the question “why am I doing this?” more frequently.?

The business world is a very interesting place, and far more frequently than we would expect, we encounter moral dilemmas. Or maybe we don’t even notice them, because they are so frequent that we’ve developed a habit of filtering them out. The constant commercial pressure of financial success condoning and encouraging selfish and combative behaviour. Failing to challenge a sexist comment because it’s a regular part of the culture. Executing the instructions of a senior leader without challenging the way this treats the employees like expendable resources rather than people.?

In a lot of these cases, even if we don’t notice them we will still, rightly, feel a lot of discomfort. Confusingly, if we can get past the normalisation and notice them, it can be even more uncomfortable and even career limiting to stand against them.

We can feel uncomfortable for other reasons too. Outside your comfort zone is where the magic happens - this is where you learn, grow, and develop yourself and your success. So how do we recognise when we are acting (or not acting) because it makes us uncomfortable for good reasons and choose to do it anyway? How do we recognise when we are uncomfortable because the action is not in alignment with our morals and values, and give ourselves the option to choose to not act in a way that sacrifices them??

Know your values, regularly remind yourself of them, and wake up from the walking slumber we can find ourselves in as we progress through busy and stressful working days, to give yourself more opportunity to act in a way you’ll be proud of.?

The Courage to Challenge

Challenging something that doesn’t align with your values is one of the most powerful things you can do. It not only protects your integrity but also sets a standard for those around you. When you refuse to compromise who you are, you inspire others to do the same.

That said; choose your battles. People around you are likely to be normalised and zombified to the business culture too, and the corporate world is well evolved to deal with troublemakers. I am definitely not saying ‘do not act’ here - far too many people choose not to and this is why we are still tolerating this kind of environment. Choose to act in a way that helps to progress the culture forward without sacrificing your place or position in it, so you can continue to positively influence it.

Play it smart, for the long game. From several bitter experiences in very corporate environments, I have learned the hard way that standing up for what is right, even when it fully aligns with society’s view of what is right, can be very detrimental to you and also rendered ineffective. Again, this does not mean ‘do not act’; instead, consider carefully how to act, who to involve, and how to do it in a way that will mean you’ll still be around to keep creating an impact consistently until the culture changes.

So the next time something doesn’t feel right, pause and reflect. Is this discomfort that will make you grow, or a betrayal of your principles and values? If it’s the latter, how can you brave even more discomfort to act differently in a way that will have a positive impact?

Your future self, and others around you, will thank you.

This content by James Carter is licensed under CC BY 4.0