Ethical Traps
Venturing into business is a complex process because various ethical considerations must be applied to ensure that moral conduct is embraced in all business activities. For instance, most businesses in the contemporary world have been forced to standardize their prices while enhancing the quality of their products. Retailing giants have been forced to bully their suppliers to continuously reduce the cost of manufacturing, and this has led to the development of sweatshops to facilitate cost-cutting. While this might enable the companies to have a competitive advantage in the market, it is quite unethical, and I will look into embracing utilitarianism as the core of the guidelines that will govern my conduct.
Utilitarianism compels individuals and businesses to make decisions that have good repercussions for the greater society. The espoused values of my business will attain parallelism with utilitarian values to eliminate all ethical traps along the way. I will compel all my business partners to assume the values and to act accordingly when faced with ethical dilemmas. For instance, I expect the people around me to embrace whistleblowing as an ethical approach toward ensuring that the appropriate guidelines are followed by every entity in the business.
Psychological Biases
Psychological biases are common in business, whereby individuals might be compelled to make decisions guided by their emotions. Emotional intelligence is a major requirement in business because many situations can influence negative reactions on the part of an individual. For instance, dealing with suppliers and difficult customers can lead to agitation and anger, but it is always important to react without showing negative emotions. The emotional burden associated with business processes can be effectively controlled by enhancing emotional intelligence and thinking hard before making decisions.
I will always look into eliminating emotions in all decisions in business to prevent psychological biases that might have negative influences on my goals. The most effective way of eliminating psychological biases in decision-making is consulting with trusted people to hear their opinion and consider aligning the final decision with their common sentiments. It is particularly important to refrain from being overconfident in the decision-making process because it is normally associated with psychological biases. I am committed to being a participative leader and a good follower, and I will always brainstorm with the people around me when facing an important decision.
Failure
Failure is one of the issues that one has to deal with in business. Most successful businesses are always associated with episodes of failure, and the most important thing when facing a failure is to always keep trying. I am prepared to face failure with a positive mindset. Failure should be a motivational factor to a business because it highlights the different approaches that are not feasible for the attainment of success. Failure also provides a chance for the business to strategize for the future. It puts the internal and external pressures of the business into perspective; thus, enabling the business entities to make new strategies with the potential to drive the companies into success. I am looking forward to becoming an innovative business person with the ability to identify internal and external pressures and responding to them accordingly. I will apply a transformational leadership approach in my business to ensure that it is always changing with the trends in the market.
Works Cited
Shanley, John Patrick. Doubt: A Parable. Dramatists Play Service Inc., 2005.
Solomon, Andrew. “How the Worst Moments in our Lives Make Us Who We are.”TED. Web.