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>>Integrity and Personal Leadership


Are you happy with your life? Your answer to this question gets to the heart of integrity and personal leadership. The word "integrity" means wholeness, completeness, and unifying the parts into a whole. Your thought through purpose and goals in life are the core around which all of the parts of your life ideally connect. The parts of your life that need to be whole and mutually supportive are:
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 Your personal purpose and goals;
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 The values and goals of the organizations to which you are committed;
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 Your short range goals; and
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 Your daily use of time.


Daily integrity is achieved when you perform those tasks that move you closer to your personal goals and values and your organization's goals and values.

The breach of integrity that destroys personal leadership effectiveness occurs when an individual moves to a position within his or her company just for more money, yet the position does not line up with his or her values and goals. An engineer, for example, may have really wanted to continue making discoveries as an engineer, but takes the higher paying promotion to Engineering Manager. As a new manager, he daily digs his way out from under an avalanche of the administrative tasks necessary to coordinate a group of ten engineers. His discontent grows, but he is trapped by the golden handcuffs of more money and status.

The break in personal integrity results in the discharge of a variety of attitudes and behaviors that contribute to poor leadership:
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 Feeling stress because there is never enough time to do what the person really loves doing;
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 Being impatient with other people in one-on-one relationships and meetings;
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 Isolating one's self in the office versus time out with subordinates, customers, and fellow leaders because even chance encounters result in new and often unwanted action items; and
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 Hurriedly doing work without thinking; just to get it done.

Ultimately, leaders with goal conflicts become extremely fatigued, burnt-out, or even ill.

In contrast to this picture is the leader who has made decisions to work in areas where he or she loves the work. Every day is a new adventure on the road to his or her goals. This leader has energy to spare, and it comes across as enthusiasm and even charisma. He or she is excited. The energy resonates in his or her voice, tone, and non-verbal gestures, which communication experts say communicates up to 93% or more of what is heard. That enthusiasm creates a motivation chain in the work group and the organization that, in turn, stimulates greater creativity and energy.

If your daily life is not yet lined up with your true purpose and passion, sit down with yourself and develop a plan to get there. It will be the foundation for your ability to lead others.
Please contact Hillary Keith for permission to reproduce Side by Side Leadership® articles from the on-line Leadership Community site: E-mail: community@sidebyside.com Phone: 1-800-204-3118.
© Dennis A. Romig, 2002



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