The Critical Importance of Integrity

I've been thinking a lot about integrity lately, and noticing the word and the concept appearing in leadership articles and in conversation. I just stumbled across this article from 1999 on the web: The Critical Importance of Integrity. The article makes a point that I think I've known, but never really thought about specifically before: integrity is not just important, it's critical for leadership. If a person is lacking in integrity, they will have a much harder time inspiring confidence and leading others. I think that some people in business believe that, to be a leader or manager, all it takes is a payroll. I tell you what to do, you do it, and I'm a leader. But that's a very short-lived transaction. This is reality here! These are our lives! And life is too short to put up with people, especially leaders, who can't be trusted. The importance of leadership is even more true in the age of the Internet, when any leader's idiosyncrasies or transgressions can be shared with the planet in an instant. Leaders have to have perfect integrity, or they will be found out, and discredited. Leaders from government and the private sector are shown to be culpable of illegal activity every day in the paper. The mighty fall at an alarming rate. So, if you want to be a leader, you have to have integrity, which means, at its essence, being who you are. If you are who you are, you will do what you say you are going to do, and you will do the "right" thing for the situation, no matter what. When your motives are confused, or you aren't sure who you are in a given situation, that is where you get into trouble. As Leonard Roberts, former CEO of Arby's, Shoney's, and Radio Shack, has said, "You cannot maintain your integrity 90% and be a leader. It's got to be 100%."