If step 5 does not provide a course of action, assess the consequences of each possible course of action for all of the stakeholders involved. (Ethics in Accounting)
Step 7: Make your decision and take any indicated action. (Ethics in Accounting)
Once you are able to recognize when there are ethical issues present is when you personally make the choice to either be ethical or to not be ethical. In the accountants case it really revolves more around not just recognizing the problem but using good reasoning and good judgment to resolve the ethical issues that so often present themselves.
Another importance to being ethical is that it really puts a lot of trust in you from the public. This includes not only through accounting but also through your everyday life. According to one study from the 2012 Global IBM CEO study of 1,700 CEOs worldwide they found that having good ethics and values is what they look for most in their employee’s traits on becoming a successful leader. (Center for Education) The graph below shows their results in 2012 of the 1,700 CEOs