What is the most important leadership skill to have?  Integrity!

Dwight D. Eisenhower said “ The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

Integrity means different things to different people.  

To some it’s honesty, telling the truth. Others would say integrity is about doing the right thing, regardless even, perhaps especially, when it’s easier not to.  Joyce Meyer says “integrity means you are the same in public as you are in private”. So while each of us may not have the exact same definition of integrity, we all agree that it’s a quality that defines people.

Here’s the thing about integrity, you either have it or you don’t.  

It isn’t something you can ‘develop’ and there’s no class you can take that teaches you integrity.  Now that is a problem since integrity is the most important skill leaders need in order to be successful.  

How you treat people matters, how you treat people tells them what they can expect from you.

If you are inconsistent in your behavior and actions; one time interested in those around you and other times coming across as dismissive and disconnected they don’t know what to expect of you.  And when people don’t know what to expect we always assume the worst and act accordingly. At this point, trust doesn’t exist.

Integrity takes guts and courage.  

Except for those with integrity as they never think of themselves as having courage, or being honorable or consistent in their actions, they just are that person.  It’s part of their DNA and shows up in literally every interaction they have with another human being.

A client of mine, struggled professionally because her boss was having an affair with her counterpart.  Her struggle was around integrity. How could he make solid business decisions that affected ‘his sweetheart’ and what does this behavior say about him since both were married?

We had many conversations about this topic as she was struggling with trust issues, unsure what she could share with him for fear it would get back to her counterpart.  She was never certain that decision he made that impacted her were not as a result of pillow talk with her counterpart. At two conferences where they had booths, he and his lover disappeared and she repeatedly had to lie about where they were when asked by clients and others.  

Here’s the point.  

I suspect he never considered his personal indiscretions had any impact on his professional life.  Yet of course, it did, how could it not? Ultimately my client left the company as she couldn’t get past her lack of trust with him and honestly her judgment about his behavior.  

While you can’t teach integrity each of us can take a look at our personal definition of integrity and see if it still fits.

As I already said, each of us has our own definition of integrity, and over time it likely changes.  Integrity is not black and white, it’s lots of shades of gray depending on the situation.

You can’t teach integrity, period.  Leaders who want to be successful have to have high integrity.  

The challenge is though by whose definition?