Work Ethic
Author: Sylvia Henderson

Otherwise called a Protestant work ethic, a Google™ of the term “work ethic” yields a definition at Answers.com that reads, “A view of life that promotes hard work and self-discipline as a means to material prosperity. It is called Protestant because some Protestant groups believe that such prosperity is a sign of God's grace.” Whatever your faith (if any), and whatever your belief in a god (if any), the term “work ethic” extends beyond its faith-based origin into a generally accepted concept defining one’s attitude towards work and life.

For some, the term represents positive attributes: responsibility, diligence, dedication, persistence, focus, caring, honesty, discipline, commitment. For others, the term represents that which is wrong with the world: excessiveness, 24/7 “always on” environment, information overload, workaholic tendencies, family dissolution, corporate greed. For most – managers, chief officers of businesses and associations, human resource professionals, skilled trades people, professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs, and employees and workers – the term “work ethic” evokes strong feelings and passionate responses one way or the other. What is it about possession, or lack, of a strong work ethic that tends to define how one thinks of another person as well as oneself, and influences perceptions, relationships, trust, and performance evaluations of so many people?

Observe an awards ceremony of any kind, whether related to sports, entertainment, discovery, politics, business achievement, or otherwise. Award winners typically thank three entities in their lives — in varying order — when they accept their awards: the people who gave birth to or raised them, their faith, and their colleagues who contributed to their achieving their current recognition. When they thank the people who raised them, they say in one way or another, “I thank [fill in the person’s name] for encouraging me when I was growing up and for teaching me the value of hard work.”

That value of hard work represents a work ethic. Your work ethic is not your job description, career goals, or the tasks you perform. Your work ethic is part of your belief system and reflects in your attitudes and behavior. Your work ethic is how you feel deep down inside that you should behave and respond when it comes to deciding whether to work hard or not. It is what you do when no one else is watching, as well as how you contribute to others’ success when they are (watching).

The old cliché about succeeding in life is that you have to work hard to succeed and that you will not succeed at something if you do not work at it. While this may be true conceptually, the cliché smacks of motivational fluff that is nice to hear but difficult to implement. It may also be difficult to accept and teach in an age of multi-million dollar sports and media contracts and drug wealth.

Factors that contribute to your work ethic include:
- The environment in which you operate (work, school, home, social, political, faith),
- Your self-esteem and motivation,
- The training you receive and knowledge and skills you possess,
- Your upbringing and what you have been raised to believe regarding personal effort and achievement,
- How you value and define material and/or spiritual success, and
- Whether you receive recognition and confirmation that hard work really does yield positive results for you.
Possessing and demonstrating a positive work ethic entails a complex set of beliefs and behaviors.

So again, what is it about possession, or lack, of a strong work ethic that tends to define how one thinks of another person as well as oneself, and influences perceptions, relationships, trust, and performance evaluations of so many people? Let’s look at three aspects of “work ethic” to answer the above question: self-beliefs, external behaviors, and results.

Self-Beliefs

Your upbringing from childhood shapes your belief in the value of hard work. From an early developmental age, you learn to try new things, follow through with commitments and promises, work for what you need and/or enjoy, help when needed, share, and be honest. Or not. You learn through having chores to complete, making mistakes and examining how to do things differently next time, falling down and picking yourself back up, and getting your way some, but not all of the time. Your belief system, shaped from infancy, carries you through the rest of your life, to some extent.

You can subscribe to a positive work ethic even if you missed the lesson growing up. It usually takes some hard-to-accept, direct, sometimes hurtful feedback from people who care about you and who depend upon your performance to help you learn. However you learn the lesson, you must believe within yourself in the importance of a strong, positive work ethic as a contributing factor to your self-defined success.

External Behaviors

Once you personally believe that a strong work ethic is a good thing, you can learn, implement, and build upon the behaviors and attitudes that demonstrate you have such an ethic. Take ownership of tasks and see them through to completion. Honor commitments and fulfill promises even when they become difficult to honor and fulfill. When you meet resistance, be diligent and persistent to overcome the roadblocks you encounter. Discipline yourself to focus on the task or project at hand. Show that you care about how things turn out. Make value-based decisions and be honest and ethical even when the results of doing so may hurt at times. In the end, you have to live with yourself. Help other people when and where you can. Be a good steward of other people’s trust and possessions.

Exhibit behaviors that show that you believe in the value of hard work in every aspect of your life in order to be true to your self and to those who depend upon you.

Results

In the end, why bother with this hard work/work ethic stuff when there are easier paths to follow in life? This is where the depth and commitment to your beliefs comes into play. I believe that at some level, at points in our lives, we all ask this same question when we encounter challenges we could just as well do without. Ironically, it is exactly our beliefs and commitments that see us through these challenges.

While there is no guarantee that these results will come to pass for you, the likelihood is heavily in your favor that some will prove true.
- Performance evaluation ratings and opportunities for promotion increase when you demonstrate a positive work ethic.
- Relationships — whether personal or professional — solidify and last longer with the trust that develops through proven commitments to others.
- Your reputation spreads in ways in which you may never be aware as others communicate their trust, belief in, and respect for your strong work ethic.
- The world can seem to open up to you in both small and large ways as opportunities present themselves to you and as you place yourself in situations where “luck” methodically and consciously happens.
- You can be successful within the parameters of how you define “success”.
- Self-esteem and self-worth increase as positive external feedback and reactions reinforce your value to an organization, to other people, and to society at large.

To promise you the world is both inappropriate and unrealistic. People who have strong, positive work ethics do not all become great as we tend to define greatness in our capitalistic society. Yet those who are deemed great people seem to have such work ethics as contributing factors to their greatness. I challenge — and support — that whether you are deemed “great” on a large scale, or simply feel great about yourself and seem so to another person, when you believe in and demonstrate a positive work ethic, you expect nothing less than success.
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Sylvia Henderson wrote this article to expand on Chapter 17: Work Ethic from her book Why You Talk So White? Eliminate the Behaviors that Sabotage Your Success, ISBN #1-932197-00-1, published by V-Twin Press. The book is available online from http://www.WhyYouTalkSoWhite.com.

Sylvia conducts programs (workshops, general sessions, and keynotes) for organizations that want more effective leaders and decision-makers who want better outcomes. She integrates adult learning principles to facilitate learning retention by actively engaging audiences in the learning process and using training aids and relevant analogies. She has 20+ years experience as a corporate trainer, team leader and manager, serves on several Boards, and is President of a national association. For more on Sylvia’s business, go to www.SpringboardTraining.com.






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Sylvia Henderson conducts programs (workshops, general sessions, and keynotes) for organizations that want more effective leaders and decision-makers who want better outcomes. She integrates adult learning principles to facilitate learning retention by actively engaging audiences in the learning process and using training aids and relevant analogies. She has 20+ years experience as a corporate trainer, team leader and manager, serves on several Boards, and is President of a national association. Sylvia is the author of "Why You Talk So White? Eliminate the Behaviors that Sabotage Your Success" and co-author of "Conversations on Success" and "Real-Life HR Strategies".

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