Governance battle at work
IBy NTEGRITY is at the very core of any person’s governance character. Its basic discipline — which imposes consistency between one’s personal core values and sense of mission with day-to-day actions in one’s personal daily routine — needs to be observed in going through that daily routine at work. After all, at least a third of one’s daily schedule is taken up by duties carried out in the enterprise where we work.
As we observe integrity at work, another core feature of a governance character shines through. At work, we are expected to make use of our expertise (i.e. our knowledge and skills) in rendering service to those we are duty-bound to attend to. Whatever our position and place within the organization ladder of the enterprise where we work, we are expected to bring to that position and to our set of duties associated with that position, some special expertise, which may well be within our field of specialization: this requires some previous training, and therefore some knowledge and specific skills that normally are required to perform our work-related duties. Expertise plus the spirit of service in discharging those duties defines this other core feature of governance: it goes by the name, professionalism.
To embed professionalism into our governance character would require many acts, requiring the use of our expertise with a spirit of service towards others. Moreover, these acts are repeated with the will and determination to do them better every time. For professionals at work, we always combine the two elements of professionalism: the use of expertise and the spirit of service. These two elements are inseparable for a professional. As professionals, therefore, we keep trying to deliver these two elements in one package, with the package becoming more compact (greater expertise always delivered with a deeper spirit of service) and better through time.
Professionalism shines even brighter if in the process of embedding it into our governance character, we also give due importance to:
• Competence: We can never rest on the laurels from the expertise (knowledge and skills) we have already acquired. The operative desire for moving up the ladder of competence has to be life-long.
• Commitment: We can never allow our spirit of service to narrow down to our personal interest and to the interests of those very close to us. Instead, the horizon for our wanting to be of service has to constantly become wider and broader. Moreover, the spirit of service has to go ever deeper in our heart and will.
• Patriotism: The horizon of our service through ever-higher levels of professionalism has to be so wide and broad as to encompassthe entire country and all of our people. Moreover, we give preferential option of our professional service for the interest of the weak and the marginalized. And we never forget that at the end of the day we are citizens of the world too, and members of the human family.
It is by embedding professionalism into our personal governance character that we contribute positively to the culture and the sustainability of the governance and transformation program of the enterprise where we work. By becoming good governance warriors in this specific regard, we can become good governance assets of the enterprise.