EMOTIONAL intelligence is an integral aspect of human existence; it is what makes us human. Anyone who possesses a balanced sense of humanity will always feel the pain of our brother or sister humans, regardless of race, creed, social status, political affiliation and/or sexual orientation. All our actions are derived from some concept of a moral compass that is shaped by our upbringing, education and socialisation.
How we express our emotions and react to situations will help to define us ultimately. As professionals and people in public office with oversight of others, we are always reminded of the need to keep our conduct within the ambit of a professional code which sets parameters to ensure that our words and actions are congruent and consistent with building a just and decent society. Failure to adhere to defined and accepted professional principles compromise our efforts, tarnish our professional reputation, and diminish the value of our work.
Unfortunately, many leaders, both nationally and internationally, in their quest for wealth and power have redefined moral and ethical codes of conduct with impunity, to the point where the lines between truth and untruth, fact and lie, decency and indecency have become so blurred that many professionals are being tempted to depart from long established and accepted standards of professional and ethical conduct.
Notwithstanding the number of leaders who engage in such practice or the millions of times a lie or untruth is repeated, restating said untruth does not make it right. It is reckless, dangerous and unprofessional to verbalise to anyone, or in any environment, comments that can be recorded and/or preserved by third parties for use later, as well as anything that is not backed by fact and can be viewed as judgmental against any race, ethnic group or person affiliated with any of the aforementioned.
This in no way denies someone their right to freedom of expression, but opinion must always be differentiated from fact. We must always be mindful of the detrimental effects of uninformed opinion, especially in the performance of our professional duties. Emotive and hysterical responses to situations must be kept in check at all times, conceding always to logical, rational, fact-based, calm and composed responses commensurate with one's professional accountability standards.
Far too often we have become victims to the largely unregulated megaphone of social media, sometimes even being swayed in our professional practice by misinformation peddled on social platforms, where there is no distinction between fact and opinion, and where lies, untruths and opinion, having been repeated enough, are perceived as fact.
This dangerous behaviour has begun to reveal in many bias petticoats which compromise our capacity to act judiciously in the execution of our duties. In the process we inadvertently perpetuate insecurities of hate, racism, bigotry and division, rather than promote mechanisms for positive and systemic solutions to the problems confronting communities
