Integrity - not everyone has it

Straight from the dictionary:

in·teg·ri·ty (noun)

The quality of being honest & having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

I have this as a personal value as well as a business core value. Values should be aligned in this fashion anyway...much like when you create a business or if you are applying to a company, you want to be in alignment with the values (as long as they are taken seriously and implemented).

Why Integrity, as my number 1 value?

Because, throughout my career I have seen what happens when people lack it.

Pros of having Integrity:

• People will trust you
• You wont be questioned (outside of the normal)
• You give peopling someone to aspire to
• Most importantly (& my favorite), you can look at yourself in the mirror and be proud without any underlying shame.
• You are seen as ethical

Cons of not having Integrity:

• You will always be questioned (whether you lied that time or not)
• People will not trust you (clients, employees, peers, leadership)
• No one (who knows better) will take you seriously
• People will avoid you (not in the way introverts wish - haha)
• People want to figure how to NOT be like you
• You set the example (not in a good way) for why we all have to sign ethics paperwork in HR when onboarding

You'd think this was obvious, yet people walk around work & life everyday lacking integrity & somehow wondering why it is that people do not like them (with the caveat of true narcissists that do not care).

If you want a great #workculture you cannot sleep on the importance of having integrity as a business leader, even if this isn't a core value of the company. As soon as you go against ANY of the values the company has - your integrity will get called into question.

Example:

If a company value is transparency, yet you withhold important information (that should be given out) from people because you have a hoarding/control problem...congratulations, you have just lost the trust of people around you.

Correlation to Integrity:

You, as a business leader, said that you cared about the company core values - if that was the case you wouldn't do things that go fully against said values. Integrity ensures that we have strong principals and abide by what we agreed to in the first place & in this case - that is the company's values.

On a personal note:

If there is anything that makes me want to throw out every ounce of #emotionalintelligence I have...it is when anyone questions my Integrity (when they have no reason to). It means a great deal to me, because I do everything in my power to be the opposite of those who lack Integrity. Those are the people who hurt me most in my career. I am the type to stand on principal & I wish more did the same. The best leaders I had in my career were full of Integrity, I am sure many of you feel the same.

What have you experienced in the workplace

in regards to people with or without Integrity?