Core 1 – Integrity, page 59.
- The tree metaphor visualizes integrity as the root. Even though it’s underground and invisible, it is vital to the nourishment, strength, stability, and growth of the entire tree.
- To have integrity only – and not the other three cores – is to be a “nice guy,” maybe even a thoroughly honest person, but one who is useless. Honest but irrelevant.
Defining Integrity
- To most people, integrity means honesty.
- Honesty includes not only telling the truth, but leaving the right impression. It’s possible to tell the truth and leave the wrong impression.
- Certainly, integrity includes honesty, but there are at least three additional qualities that are equally vital:
- Congruence
- “Integrity” come from the same Latin root as the words “integrated and “integer.”
- A person has integrity when there is no gap between intent and behavior…when he/she is whole, seamless, the same – inside and out. This is often referred to as “congruence.”
- Congruence – not compliance – is what ultimately creates credibility and trust.
- People who are congruent act in harmony with their deepest values and beliefs.
- Congruent people walk their talk.
- Humility
- Integrity also includes humility.
- In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins observed, “All the good-to-great companies have Level 5 leadership at the time of transition.” Collins characterizes “Level 5” leadership as, “self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy – these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.”
- A humble person is more concerned about what is right than about being right, about acting on good ideas than having the ideas, and about embracing new truths than defending an outdated position.
- Being humble does not mean being weak. It means recognizing the principle and putting it ahead of the self. It means standing firmly for principle, even in the face of opposition.
- Humble people also realize clearly that they do not stand alone, but rather on the shoulders of those who have gone before, and that they move upward only with the help of others.
- The opposite of humility is arrogance and pride.
- Courage
- Integrity also includes the courage to do the right thing – even when it’s hard.
How to Increase Integrity
- Make and Keep Commitments to Yourself
- There is absolutely nothing you can do that will increase integrity faster than learning how to make and keep commitments to yourself.
- In the Second Wave – Relationship Trust, we will talk about the power of making and keeping commitments to others. But there’s no way you will be able to do that effectively if you haven’t first learned to make and keep commitments to yourself.
- As you consider how you might step up your ability to make and keep commitments to yourself, let me suggest a few important things to keep in mind:
- Don’t make too many commitments.
- Differentiate between a goal, a direction, a focus, and an actual commitment.
- When making a commitment, clearly understand that you are pledging your integrity.
- Treat a commitment you make to yourself with as much respect as you do the commitments you make to others.
- Do not make commitments impulsively.
- When keeping your commitment becomes hard, you have two choices: You can change your behavior to match your commitment, or you can lower your values to match your behavior. One choice will strengthen your integrity; the other will diminish it and erode your confidence in your ability to make and keep commitments.
- Stand for Something
- If you’re going to have integrity you have to have a core, something to which you must be true.
- You need to have a center. You need to have identified values.
- You need to know what you stand for and you need to stand for it, so that others know, too.
- An excellent way to identify the values you want to stand for is to go through some kind of purpose – or values-clarification process.
- Be Open
- Openness is vital to integrity. It takes both humility and courage.
- A good way to increase integrity is to work on being open.
- “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.” – Anwar Sadat
- To be open inspires credibility and trust, to be closed fosters suspicion and mistrust.
- As you evaluate your openness, you might ask yourself:
- Do I believe that the way I see the world is 100% accurate?
- Am I honestly willing to listen to and consider new viewpoints and ideas?
- Do I seriously consider differing points of view, and am I willing to be influenced by them?
- Do I believe there may be principles that I have not yet discovered? Am I determined to live in harmony with them, even if it means developing new thinking patterns and habits?
- Do I value – and am I involved in – continual learning?
- To the degree to which you remain open to new ideas, possibilities, and growth, you create a trust dividend; to the degree you do not, you create a trust tax that impacts both your current and future performance.
