At some point the leadership conversation ends up tackling values. When it does, integrity is very often at the top of everybody’s list.
I have not done an in-depth study, but if I had to guess I would say integrity is among the most common value organizations list.
Integrity is one of our core values at LEADERSHIPTEN (aka L10). It is one of my personal core values.
Given how common integrity seems to be as a value you may be wondering why take the time to write about integrity? What can I offer that might be unique when considering this ideal?
Please, indulge me and read on, I am optimistic you will find doing so beneficial.
As a leader, coach, teacher, and speaker, I am fond of encouraging those listening with the statement – words have meaning. I say this because I have found very often my grasp of a word’s meaning can be misguided, even misunderstood. This has caused me to be diligent and study what words mean, what their etymology is, and how they are correctly applied.
This practice is something I employed when I undertook to learn and know what my personal core values are. Additionally, one of the most meaningful leader workshops we host at L10 focuses on the effort around knowing your personal core values. In doing so, we stress the need to look up the meaning of the word’s participants choose as their core values.
This has proven to be a revelatory exercise. Almost without exception, someone in the group who is doing this exercise will remark at how impactful it was to look up the meaning of the words.
So, the point?? The point is this, what does INTEGRITY mean? Given the considerable frequency of integrity as a core value, examining its meaning is worthwhile.
Most would identify integrity with things like honesty, truthfulness, trustworthiness. Interestingly, as I wrote this BLOG, I first used Microsoft Word. Word’s internal thesaurus listed ‘honesty’ as the first synonym for integrity. While convention may suggest these as defining integrity, we think integrity means something much more consequential.
For us at L10, and me personally, we did a deep dive exploring the essence of what integrity intends.
This is where knowing and understanding the meaning and root of a word can be so enlightening. The root of integrity is found in the word integer [i]. An integer, of course, is a whole number, as opposed to numbers that include fractions and more complex number. For example, 1 is an integer; 1.732 is not an integer. Understanding the idea of an integer, the meaning of integrity is perhaps best characterized as “something undivided; an integral whole”[ii].
Interestingly, we are not alone in this view of the definition of integrity. Following is just one poignant commentary regarding this thinking:
‘Integrity’ is in danger of becoming a fashionable catchword in popular moral-cum-psychological usage. Prior to its loose usage as a synonym for ‘honesty’ it expressed basic moral and psychological ideas of wholeness and soundness.[i]
So, when we discuss the idea of integrity as being a core value for us as an organization the meaning has to do with wholeness. That is to say, we view leadership through a lens of wholeness. The things that contribute to how we lead are not just a PART of our leading, they impact EVERY aspect of how we lead.
All our decisions for our business are viewed through the lens that understands such decisions as impacting the entirety of the business. Positions we take as principals leading the business are influenced by the sum total of us as individuals. We are not one person away from the business and someone entirely different in the business.
Conducting ourselves and our business with integrity lends itself to what have become the more conventional interpretations of the idea of integrity. That is to say, we do business honestly, consistently, reliably. We do business these ways, not for the sake of these concepts but because of our integrity; these things are central to the entirety of who we are as individuals. As a result, these ideals permeate all that we are involved in and cannot be separated from any part of ourselves or our interests.
Let me offer a personal example. I am a Christian. My faith is at the core of who I am. As I lead, no matter the application (e.g., my restaurant, our practice, our family), the Biblical principles that are central to my faith influence how I lead. This is not about pulling out my Bible every time I have a decision to make. It is about this worldview being a fundamental reality that unapologetically colors my involvement in every area of my life.
So, what does integrity mean to you? Do you understand the values that you say define you? Have you taken the time to know and understand these concepts in a meaningful and personal way? If not, why not?
If you would like to LEARN more about this discussion or our leader development and coaching practice, we invite you to reach out to us. You can do so in a number of ways:
- Visit our website: LEADERSHIPTEN
- Email us at: info@leadershipten.org
- Connect at Instagram: LeadershipTen (@leadershipten)
- Engage via Facebook: LEADERSHIPTEN – Home | Facebook
[i] Beedell, C. (1970) Residential life with Children. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp 54-57.
[i] Retrieved from integrity | Search Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com). Mar. 15, ’22.
[ii] Retrieved from integrity, n. : Oxford English Dictionary (oed.com). Mar. 15, ’22.
