Success Doesn't Have to Cost You Your Soul: Cultivating a Character Ethic

Dear friends,

I have a confession. I don’t trust salespeople. And I’m quite suspicious of marketers. I feel the same way about politicians, lawyers and certain kinds of journalists. Skilled manipulators and persuaders rule the world and not all of them are good!
The slickness of salesman’s patter, the way he uses my name twenty times in each sentence, the grin that says we’re co-conspirators in the game of life all give me the peculiar sense that some part of my mind is being hijacked. And, yet here I am, grinning back as I reach for my credit card to pay for something I didn’t even know I wanted.
I drive home with a shiny new toy and the warm feeling that I’ve made a new buddy. But, deep down, I know that I’ve just been taken in again. Another victory chalked up to the art of effective salesmanship!
And yet here we all are on the opposite side of the sales desk. Is it our turn to learn and apply the dark arts of commerce or is there a better way?

When I read Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People a few years ago, I didn’t realise that I was about to read a book about business. Yet, I recall being impressed by the idea that some of the most successful business people attributed their success to the reliance on what Covey calls a “character ethic”.

Covey’s book laments the focus that sales and business books place on “personality ethics”, which emphasise the cultivation of the surface polish and slick technique that will lead you to “close the deal”. These manuals of the “greed is good” school of ethics may have lined some coffers, but they simultaneously contribute to the creation of a world full of sharks, manipulators and sleazy operators.
Taking the principals of the “character ethic” on board, encourages us to begin with the cultivation of inner qualities of integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience and industry. When these become the driving force behind our actions and we act out of a genuine wish to help others and contribute to a better world, we can stop worrying about appearing to be trustworthy and actually become so. It moves us away from a focus on achieving goals at any cost toward becoming the kind of person to whom great things naturally happen due to the admiration, trust and confidence that those qualities inspire.
Thank you for reading and I would be very glad to hear your comments.

Peter