Build Simple Practices in September for Ethics Month

By: Carson Horn, APR
Arkansas PRSA, Ethics Officer

September is Ethics Month, and for PR professionals, it’s a good opportunity to do more than revisit the PRSA Code of Ethics. It’s a chance to examine how intentionally we put those principles into practice.

As communicators, we regularly operate at the intersection of competing priorities from balancing organizational interests and public expectations, to protecting reputations and relationships while still being transparent and meeting deadlines. In those moments, good intentions alone are not always enough. We need habits that help us make thoughtful decisions before pressure makes them for us.

This Ethics Month, consider building a few simple practices into your daily routine:

· Pause before consequential decisions. Ask yourself whether urgency, convenience or pressure is influencing your judgment.

· Pressure-test your thinking. Consider who could be affected by the decision and whether you would be comfortable explaining your reasoning publicly.

· Invite another perspective. Ethical blind spots are easier to identify when someone else is willing to challenge our assumptions.

· Use the PRSA Code of Ethics as a working tool. Don’t reserve it for obvious ethical dilemmas. Refer to it when making everyday communications decisions involving accuracy, disclosure, conflicts, advocacy or fairness.

·Reflect afterward. When a difficult situation passes, ask what you would repeat, what you would change and what the experience taught you.

My challenge to Arkansas PRSA members this month is simple. Choose one meaningful decision each day and give it an intentional ethics check before you act.

It doesn’t need to be complicated. Take a moment. Question an assumption. Consider another stakeholder. Revisit the facts. Ask whether the decision reflects not only what you can do, but what you should do.

Ethical leadership is built through repetition. The more intentionally we practice it in ordinary moments, the better prepared we are when the extraordinary ones arrive.

Let Ethics Month be the reminder, but make the habit last all year. Click here for more resources on ethics from PRSA.

 Carson Horn, APR is Vice President, Public Relations at the Little Rock-based marketing agency The Communications Group, accredited and certified in Crisis Communications through the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and serves as the Ethics Officer of the local Arkansas PRSA Chapter.