Integrity & Leadership are almost inseparable. What can you say?
A man knows that the recommendations he is making are selfish and for his purse only, yet he goes on to mortgage the destiny of millions. That’s an integrity problem, not knowledge.
Every day we see it in the corporate world, governance, research, etc.
Integrity is consistency in methods;
Integrity is consistency in format and form;
Integrity is consistency in principle;
Integrity is consistency in the outcome;
Integrity is consistency in values;
Integrity is consistency in measures;
Integrity is consistency in expectations; and
Integrity is consistency in standing by your spoken word.
There’s no difference between spoken word and sworn word where there is INTEGRITY. [This is my message to leaders as leaders’ developers.] I think now you can know why most of our people don’t have integrity. They rationalize it that way because they don’t have integrity, so no other person has. Now, you know better, live right: HAVE INTEGRITY.
Perhaps, you might be among the people who trivialize integrity, but do you know that WRONG is WRONG even if everyone is doing it, and RIGHT is RIGHT even if no one is doing it? If you know this and understand this, you are with me in appreciating integrity. It is Working Your Talk according to John C Maxwell, my father. What of the world’s most celebrated writers of all centuries, William Shakespeare? He said on Integrity, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” Integrity is CHOOSING your THOUGHTS and ACTIONS based on values rather than PERSONAL gain. Are you here with me? You can see why many people don’t have integrity:
- maybe no thoughts of theirs,
- maybe no capacity to choose between thoughts,
- maybe no value system,
- maybe personal values are promoted more than corporate goods.
Integrity may be viewed as the quality of having a sense of honesty and truthfulness regarding the motivations for one’s actions. This is between you and me: are you honest and truthful? That’s the starting point. If you think before responding to a mortal man like me, you are not having integrity. Start living ONE life from today: WHERE THOUGHT & ACTION ARE INTEGRAL (ONE) – not one life for the public, another life for private; one life for the workplace, another home life. That’s a life of no integrity.
Excerpt my book: Leadership Is Everything, chapter 20. Get it.
