CONTRIBUTING SCHOOLS
Agrupamento de Escolas de Vilela, Paredes - PORTUGAL
Ataturk Mesleki Ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi - TURKEY
Saban Temuge Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi - TURKEY
Daugavpils 16. Vidusskola - LATVIA
Gerze Sehit Nurullah Sarac Anadolu Lisesi - TURKEY
As Thomas Jefferson said, ''Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.'' It ensures people to create a circle of love around themselves. It never fails to bring happiness to the lives of humanbeings.
So, the work of our students in this honesty journal has vital value to enlarge our circle of love. Thanks to all our students for their efforts to contribute to our journal.
To all our students:
Always keep in mind that if you want honesty, give honesty. Be a reflection of what you’d like to see in others.
VALUES MAKING US VALUABLE ETWINNING PROJECT
FEBRUARY , 2020
Honesty and integrity are key ingredients in developing trust. Trust is a key element in establishing credibility. Our credibility is at the center of our ability to influence others and provide strong leadership. In our leadership development work, we often ask participants to list the qualities of the most effective leaders they have experienced in their family, school, community, social, or organizational lives. Words like sincere, truthful, trustworthy, reliable, principled, and genuine are usually on the list. These characteristics are the hallmarks of strong leaders.
Honesty and integrity is a given in most conversations about leadership values. But some people seem to feel it’s something you can slip on and off like clothing. They will speak of personal, professional, or business behaviors as if different suits of honesty are put on according to the situation. This shows “doing honesty” rather than being honest. It’s no more than putting on an honest act. People quickly see through it and reduce us to our lowest level of honesty and integrity — our dirtiest clothes. Even more importantly — which is the real me? How can changeable honesty ring true to me?
Our true character is often revealed by fear and greed. In times of fear we often face great difficulty and disaster. Or we might have huge opportunities for financial, career, power, or other big gains. How we deal with both extremes when the stakes are high, reveals our true selves. The choices we make during those intense moments of truth exposes the depth of our character. Do we “do our honesty and integrity thing” when it’s convenient or just when we think others are watching? Or are we an honest being who’s eventually found out?
Parents and even managers will sometimes say, “Don’t let me catch you doing that again.” This often leads to lively games of “catch me if you can.” But honesty and integrity are developed from the inside out. Abraham Lincoln explained it well in reflecting on his approach, “I do the best I know how, the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.” Ringing true to me means going beyond just what I say or do. It involves listening to what my inner voice tells me about how I feel about what I’ve said or done.
One way to explore our inner level of true honesty and integrity is look at how much we trust others. Since we see the world as we are, any feelings that people are basically dishonest and can’t be trusted may be revealing more about me than them. One of the hazards of lying, is not just that people wouldn’t believe us, it’s also that we can’t believe anyone else.
Honesty and Integrity Build a Foundation of Trust
by Jim Clemmer