Integrity in Leadership
Friday, June 18, 2004
Integrity in Leadership is a concept that keeps coming up in my work and non-work world of late. When I think about what this means, I realize that there are many ways to make meaning of this -- and all of them are right! (at least to some extent).
One very recent example: There's a client group I'm working with right now, and their struggle is that they have truly great ideas about how to do what they do, better, faster, and more effectively. They feel that their leader has asked them to learn more and take on more initiative, by marrying their experience with their technical knowledge, and adding in their creative energy. When reality evolves, they find that they work harder, do their jobs better, but aren't recognized, either publicly or monetarily. To them, their leader has failed them. He lacks integrity. He lacks understanding. He lacks compassion.
Having worked with this leader, I know that none of these charges are true. If anything, this leader is compassionate and understanding, almost to a fault. He is a person with great integrity. Despite my experience or perspective, the team's opinion will not be changed.
I ask the leader, "What would it mean to you if people question your integrity?" The response is first frustration and defensiveness, but we move gradually to curiosity. He wants to know why this group feels this way. He wants to know what he needs to do in order to understand the group's "reality" better, and then what to do to change it. The What he does is not the most critical point to his leadership. It is the How he does it that is just as important. His integrity can grow and spread through his own willingness to be curious and open to how others see what he may not see about himself, and then take action to create a different result.
One very recent example: There's a client group I'm working with right now, and their struggle is that they have truly great ideas about how to do what they do, better, faster, and more effectively. They feel that their leader has asked them to learn more and take on more initiative, by marrying their experience with their technical knowledge, and adding in their creative energy. When reality evolves, they find that they work harder, do their jobs better, but aren't recognized, either publicly or monetarily. To them, their leader has failed them. He lacks integrity. He lacks understanding. He lacks compassion.
Having worked with this leader, I know that none of these charges are true. If anything, this leader is compassionate and understanding, almost to a fault. He is a person with great integrity. Despite my experience or perspective, the team's opinion will not be changed.
I ask the leader, "What would it mean to you if people question your integrity?" The response is first frustration and defensiveness, but we move gradually to curiosity. He wants to know why this group feels this way. He wants to know what he needs to do in order to understand the group's "reality" better, and then what to do to change it. The What he does is not the most critical point to his leadership. It is the How he does it that is just as important. His integrity can grow and spread through his own willingness to be curious and open to how others see what he may not see about himself, and then take action to create a different result.
