The "Mirror Test"

Ethical public relations – “An oxymoron, if I've ever heard one” joked one of my friends. Ask the average person on the street to define public relations and two words will often come back: spin doctor. And there’s a rather pejorative tone to the response.

Because of the extremely high ethical standards of the many PR professionals that I know, I find this perception more than a bit amusing. Furthermore, public relations professionals work for so many different types of organizations, with varying mandates, it’s impossible to make any kind of broad statement about the ethical standards of the people who fill these roles.

And the lens through which we see the world surely affects how we judge the work we do. For example, a communications director for the Canadian Cancer Society may be very passionate about communicating the dangers of tobacco use while that person’s counterpart at the Ontario Flu-Cured Tobacco Growers’ Marketing Board feels equally strong about the need to communicate the economic and cultural significance of the tobacco industry to southern Ontario communities.

Some PR professionals choose to become a member of a professional association or society that maintains a Code of Conduct or Code of Professional Standards. Members agree to adhere to the code but I’m not sure how often these are enforced and what level of deterrence they provide against unethical conduct. While these may influence the behaviour of some members of the profession, others are motivated by personal factors.

Beyond the laws, regulations and codes of behaviour that supposedly apply to all equally, there are three primary, personal considerations that guide our behaviour:

1. People tend to self-select into organizations and types of work that aligns with their personal value system;

2. From an economic survival perspective, many ask themselves if the work they do today will affect their ability to work tomorrow – because of the very “public” nature of our work, our reputation sticks to us like glue; and

3. We need to pass “The Mirror Test”.

The first two are pretty much self-explanatory but I often get a puzzled look when I talk to people about passing The Mirror Test. No, it’s not about how good we look in the mirror. It is also not a measurement of how often we check our appearance.

Quite simply, it’s the answer to the question: “After each action I take, after each representation I make, can I walk over to the nearest mirror, look myself in the eye and say that I feel proud of the work that I’ve done?” Since I’m the only one that has to look at myself in that mirror, every day for the rest of my life, I need to make sure it’s a test I can pass. So far, so good…