{"id":13228,"date":"2020-08-10T22:50:58","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T22:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/948294437a.nxcli.io\/?p=13228"},"modified":"2020-08-10T22:51:34","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T22:51:34","slug":"integrity-and-integrity-and-leadership-how-to-deal-with-truth-courage-and-slippery-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/10\/integrity-and-integrity-and-leadership-how-to-deal-with-truth-courage-and-slippery-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrity and Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Integrity and Leadership: How to Deal With Truth, Courage and Slippery Facts<\/h1>\n
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There are two quotes that I often refer to as I think about the relationship of truth and integrity with what it takes to be a good leader.<\/p>\n

One is by\u00a0the Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, who wrote,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cEverything we hear is an\u00a0\u00a0opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The other was Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who argued that<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We hear a great many opinions from leaders about all sorts of things. And we are practically drowning in all the data that we have access to \u2013 without much clear guidance as to how we separate so-called facts from fiction. It\u2019s not that facts do not exist. It is just hard to decipher which facts are true when we are exposed to opposing viewpoints from sources that all claim to be reliable. Who can you trust?<\/p>\n

Making matters worse, I\u2019ve come to learn that trust isn\u2019t absolute. Trust tends to be conditional \u2013 based on how we feel about the source in any given moment. And trust is transactional. People not only tend to believe what they want to believe \u2013 but often believe whatever benefits them most.<\/p>\n

Compound this with a climate that seems to have less and less regard for what we have typically expected as truthfulness from our leaders \u2013 and it\u2019s no wonder how polarized the world is politically \u2013 and how dysfunctional we are as a society.<\/p>\n

Leadership is supposed to resolve this for us. We should be able turn to leaders for safety and to help us get to where we need to go.<\/p>\n

Leadership ought to be a reliable resource we turn to for help organizing things we might accomplish together that we could never accomplish alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead we find leaders who are feared and distrusted. We see leaders who wield the power that their authority grants them in order to serve themselves. What ever happened to benevolent leaders or servant leadership?\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not that all leaders are bad \u2013 or that leadership is a failing art. It may just be evidence that as a society we have lowered our expectations \u2013 and with that our standards for what good leadership looks like.<\/p>\n

It takes courage to speak the truth when it is inconvenient to do so. When people refuse to hear what they don\u2019t want to hear we find leaders who will say anything.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lee Thayer suggests that people prefer problems we cannot solve over solutions we do not like. Rather than be the bearer of bad news \u2013 it\u2019s easier to share happy-talk \u2013 and rely on wishful thinking rather than making difficult decisions. When convenience wins over pragmaticism \u2013 leadership becomes a piece of cake: you do what\u2019s popular \u2013 and ignore the facts.<\/p>\n

Facts are sometimes hard to grasp, but for leaders without real integrity facts tend to become slippery. While facts are not easily manipulated, people are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People are easily seduced into either ignoring facts that don\u2019t fit or accepting counterfeits without any regard for authenticity.<\/p>\n

I like the definition of integrity that my friend Sean Flaherty uses. He talks of simply owning and cleaning up the messes we make. How many people who you know \u2013 would benefit from just behaving this way?<\/p>\n

I take it one further. I believe it\u2019s not just cleaning-up our messes \u2013 but how we go about cleaning them up. Doing so diligently \u2013 or showing care for doing the job well carries a great deal of weight. But even more so, acting conscientiously is the hallmark of real integrity. Conscientiousness suggests that what you do is driven by your conscience \u2013 being guided by your sense of having a noble purpose.<\/p>\n

Leadership without a sense of purpose is a vacant bargain with fate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You might get lucky and accomplish something meaningful and even perhaps significant-\u00a0\u00a0but it would be foolish for anyone to depend on you to deliver results consistent with that level of accomplishment.<\/p>\n

It takes courage to be truthful, honest, integral and conscientious. And it takes humility to learn how to develop this kind of courage.<\/p>\n

Being courageous in your character demands a kind of vulnerability that makes most people uncomfortable. Leaders must get comfortable with that discomfort in order to grow themselves into the kind of leaders who accomplish what really matters most. Those who are afraid to ask difficult questions \u2013 or let people know that you don\u2019t have the answers will find that they don\u2019t have what it takes to be an exceptional leader.<\/p>\n

Those who don\u2019t may attempt to deceive others with half-truths, slippery counterfeit facts and shear bravado \u2013 and some will succeed to some uncertain extent. But these are not the leaders we need.<\/p>\n

The leaders we need are those who understand that it is those they lead that make them successful, ( not the other way around)\u00a0\u00a0and who rise above the need to manipulate people in favor of helping them become inspired to perform for a common good.<\/p>\n

When it comes to leadership \u2013 and most things in life, there is simply no substitute for integrity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n