Being the Best, the Right Way

On Being the Best, The Right Way
GaNeane E. Lewis
US/101
August 11, 2013
Johannes Siemson

Information within the business world is a priceless commodity. How one uses this information will determine your success or failure in the business arena. Information within the world of academia is valuable in a different sort of way. How one obtains and presents information will also determine your success or failure. I believe that the combination of my personal Ethical Lens, my strengths in researching and presenting and my facility in critical thinking will be the foundation to my success as a student and in the business community.
I found the Ethical Lens Inventory to be fairly representative of myself. My preferred lens is the Reputation lens, which is defined as “listen(ing) to your intuition (sensibility) to determine what character traits and virtues will best serve the community (equality)” (Ethical Games LLC, 2013). It stated that equality and sensibility are my core values. I agree that I am compassionate and have a strong respect for tradition. I must ward against having unrealistic role expectations. If I lack compassion I will forget that problems affect individuals, not just a whole company. As I strive to be successful I must balance all of my character traits in an effort to improve my community, while not ignoring the needs of individuals.
As a student, I expect my instructors to want the very best for us as students. As students I expect that for us as well. Cheating and academic dishonesty not only affect the individual, but it also diminishes the educational experience and learning process for everyone. I expect to learn alongside my classmates and to learn from them. If they are not doing their part in good faith, it makes my own experience less than ideal. The instructors are there to educate us. Sometimes this work is very time consuming. I want to think that my contribution to that process will be a well-written paper that is also interesting and informative. Plagiarism may cause an instructor to lose faith either in that person, or the class or perhaps in their own ability to successfully engage their students.
I believe that my Ethical Lens is very conducive to critical thinking. I am willing to look at a problem from more than one angle in order to find the best solution, including new ideas. This is critical thinking. Researching a topic requires that you open your mind to different viewpoints and perhaps draw new conclusions based upon the information you have learned. Learning to think critically in an academic setting is the foundation for applying critical skills in the workplace.
The Reasoning Aptitude test found my strengths to be “taking initiative, writing, applying expertise, researching, delivering results and presenting” (University of Phoenix, 2013). I found opportunities to improve in the areas of “adapting to change, coping with pressure and goal focus” (University of Phoenix, 2013). I am good at research and presenting my ideas to others, particularly through writing. In my current field I am skilled at applying the expertise required by my field by being a careful and methodical Surgical Technologist. I also take initiative by thinking ahead and preparing for additional needs. In my future career plans I will need to hone these same skills as I analyze how the systems within a business can work together more efficiently and also produce a more comfortable work environment for the employees.
My ethical lens comes into place academically in that I will not cheat to get ahead. I work diligently to ensure that I do not plagiarize, even accidentally and that I do the work of preparing myself for the degree I am pursuing. In the workplace ethics is a must. It is the difference in whether or not a patient gets an infection, or if a business succeeds or fails. If I simply applied my skills without a sense of morality then any success I may achieve will not only be false, but it also will not endure. I believe that in order to be the best, you must do things the right way. You will then find success.