Integrity:
The Consistency of Choices
By Warren Martin
Integrity repeatedly comes up
as the number one quality
employees are looking for in
their boss. This tells us
two things:
1) the importance of integrity
in relationships and
2) the fact that there is a lack
of integrity in business. If
most employers had
integrity, it wouldn’t be
the number one thing
employees desired. Although
we highly cherish integrity,
the reality is very few people
can actually define it, which
is probably why there is
a shortfall.
In hundreds of meetings across
the nation, I have asked groups
to define integrity. I often get
as many answers as there are
tables in the room. People will
define integrity as being honest,
trustworthy, “who you are
when no one is looking”, or
something along those lines.
Most people will define integrity
according to a wound they have
received. If they have been told
a lie, then integrity is someone
who is honest. If they have
been betrayed, then integrity
is someone who is loyal. All
of these qualities are
important. None of these
qualities is integrity.
We live in a world that
encourages us to
compartmentalize our lives.
When we go to work we put on
a persona and at home we put
on another persona. We change
who we are (how we act,
speak and even think) from
compartment to compartment.
This is seen as normal. It is
also why there is little integrity
in the world.
To understand integrity, let me
take you back to junior high
math class—aren’t you excited
now! In junior high math class
you learned a word: integer.
Integer comes from the Latin
and means “whole”. An integer
is any whole number. Integer
is the root word of integrity.
Integrity literally means “the
state of being a whole number”.
Integrity simply means I am a
whole person. When you see me
at work, then at home, then at
church, then at my daughter’s
basketball game yelling at the
referees, if I have integrity, you
will see the same person in
each case. This is extremely
hard to accomplish in a world
that encourages you to
compartmentalize your life.
It is not normal.
Do