Ethics are moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity. It has to do with what your feelings tell you about what is right or wrong. Equally, it is the standard of behaviour that our society accepts. It also represents the study of morality, good, bad, right, wrong, human conduct, and behaviour in a moral sense, and moral values. Ethics is the heart of leadership where its basis is the principles of right conduct called morals. Ethics is all about the assessment and evaluation of
values because all of life is value-laden.

Ethics come from a Greek word ethos meaning custom, conduct or character. Ethics could be descriptive, normative, or meta- ethics.

Values represent an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct or end-state of existence. Values are those psychological constructs that are internal to a person since the value of a person shapes his or her organisational behaviour. They are based on ethics and morals. However, values could be terminal or instrumental. Values represent the supporting factor that drives our world, organisations, and families.

What does trust factor entail? Trust remains the only key that can unlock a priceless dialogue with people. Trust takes place between two individuals, but there are signs that it remains a very scarce commodity especially in our world. Since, great firms and institutions were born and built on this natural expectation of trust; you have to earn people’s trust.

We shall discuss the four primary components of trust: credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self-orientation.