Articles, books, speeches, training and more training, conferences, seminars, blogs, tweets, and probably billions of spoken words… all about the ramifications and “how to’s” of integrity. There has probably never been a time when integrity was more discussed yet more bent, broken, abused and ignored.
A recent Harvard Business Review article, entitled The Practice of Performance with Integrity, provides some clear, concise questions each and every leader should ask themselves… and the people who report to them:
Do you and the leaders for whom you are responsible:
- Communicate to the organization that integrity must never be compromised to make the numbers?
- Discipline generals, not just troops, for integrity lapses?
- Address difficult integrity issues regularly at staff meetings?
Do you and the leaders for whom you are responsible:
- Build a strong integrity infrastructure – processes for preventing, detecting, and responding to lapses in all businesses and regions – and put A players in charge of it?
- Assess integrity needs realistically and provide adequate funding for those activities?
- Respond promptly to early warnings on trends in legal, ethical, and country risks?
Do you and the leaders for whom you are responsible:
- Encourage reporting of financial, legal, and ethical concerns through a system that prevents retaliation?
- Ensure that concerns are investigated fairly and promptly, that trends are tracked, and that remedial action is taken if needed?
Honest and open self-examination, using just these few clear and concise questions, as well as frequent discussion and public recommitment by all leaders would literally change our individual and collective organizations… as well as the world.
Any leader, no matter what his or her rank, influence or accomplishments, who is not eager to support and participate, as well as regularly and publicly recommit should be gone… not next week… not tomorrow… but today!
If widely applied, my leadership colleagues, this model and process would literally… and significantly… change our world! And, much for the better!
Where do you stand (actions speak far louder than words) on this critical issue?
