Integrity is a virtue that ideally should inform our treatment of one another, whether at home, in business, at work or while pursuing shared goals.
Over the years, I have developed what I believe is a helpful framework for understanding the essential nature of integrity.
I see integrity as the composite of essentially 5 commitments:
- Act Rightly – do the right thing for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do.
- Speak Truthfully – be appropriately honest about what you really think and feel.
- Show Consistency – be the same person regardless of the context you are in.
- Allow Transparency – let others validate your credibility by independent examination.
- Take Responsibility – admit your mistakes and make amends where you can.
I speak about these in detail here, so if you want to know more about how these 5 things shape our integrity, follow the link and have a listen.
That said, I’ve come to realise that there is something else that is essential to integrity, without which the above-mentioned practices could be less than truly integrous.
That essential something is “intent”, the reason or motive for doing any of the above.
Sincere and selfless (or at least mutually beneficial) intention is the hidden element in the chemistry of integrity that makes it what it ought to be.
For instance, it’s intention that is the difference between manipulation and persuasion.
Persuasion is my attempt to convince you for your benefit. Manipulation is my attempt to convince you for my benefit.
As paradoxical as it may sound, you can speak truthfully with dishonest intent.
You can take responsibility with a selfish hidden agenda.
You can do what is right for all the wrong reasons.
You may attempt to create the appearance of integrity in one area of your life (by pursuing all of the above-mentioned integrity attributes) only because you want to cover up a lack of integrity in another area of your life.
The point is simply this: why we do what we do is ultimately what makes integrity the virtue that it is and at the heart of integrity is an intent that is genuinely loving, selfless, and others-centred.
