I love rules!
Until, I realized that I needed to start breaking them. I was fed up with many rules that didn’t align with progress and creativity, especially in the Education Sector where I started from, in Nigeria.
As I keep learning to break as many rules as possible, I realized that, rules and standards are not set to make people terrible.
It is set by the society, by an institution, between two people as guidelines to help navigate best practices in any community.
For example, Coaching is tending towards being a self-regulated industry and that can dangerous, just like in any other professional sector. It means there is a lot of chance for misguidance, unprofessionalism and unethical practice.
In this class, it is great to find out that there is a huge list of ethics that regulates the coaching industry.
Reading through the list of Ethical Guideline in the ICF website, I found that it captures different categories that I find appealing and useful to have a seamless Coaching practice.
For example, the Section IV – Responsibility to the Society, number 25 states that;
“As an ICF Professional, I avoid discrimination by maintaining fairness and equality in all activities and operations, while respecting local rules and cultural practices. This includes, but is not limited to, discrimination on the basis of age, race, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability or military status.”
I remember in February – March, 2020, when Nigeria had the first case of the corona virus pandemic, many people were clamoring that the medical practitioners and the state should release the face and name of the person.
Then, the fact that he is a foreigner, there were negative comments about why should a foreigner brings in a deadly infection into the country.
I later saw a medical thread online that states that they must maintain the confidentiality of the patient. Though, that case posed a serious health challenge to the nation, yet confidentiality was maintained.
This tells me that even in the face of public outrage; there are ethics of my profession that I have to stick to.
One of my friends studying mass communication in the university told me that me that they were taught that one of the ethics in journalism is that ‘under reporting is allowed’ sometimes to reduce the tension and fear of the readers, while ‘misleading the public through your report isn’t allowed’.
The main question on my mind, about ethics is:
-How do you know a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ ethics?
Like the example of my friend in the university, I strongly consider underreporting as misleading, but it seems they have a way of explaining why ‘lying’ is considered ethical.
In situations where there is a clash between my personal values and the ethics of a profession, what am I supposed to do in that situation?
When there is an ethics that I don’t want to violate, but doesn’t serve the greater good, what am I to do in those cases?
Yes, more questions about ethics. This is a great insight into ethical guidelines in the Coaching Profession.
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