Recently we met with a group of top leaders from a premier company. These leaders are known for the incredible integrity they display in how they treat their customers, run their business, and how they treat their people. Paradoxically, in reviewing an extensive series of assessments and surveys, what showed up was that the people “being led” would like the leaders to be more “more self aware.” Hmmm…really? One would think that a group of leaders so known for exercising incredible integrity MUST have a keen sense of themselves and their impact on employees. As we explored these two issues (integrity and self awareness) it became clear that because of some strongly shared values and rigorous training, the leaders may have become too narrowly focused on keeping a very strong link between their “intentions” (including their values and goals) and the “behaviors” they chose to represent what they stood for. They felt that keeping this link strong and true was fundamental to demonstrating “integrity.” But others in the organization were apparently communicating that this singular focus made them appear “unaware” of their impact on others (including their teams, each other, other stakeholders). Wow! After chewing on this for awhile, they concluded that “real integrity” might actually mean making sure their leadership “intentions” were aligned with not only their “behavior” but also with their ultimate “impact” on those whom they lead. They thought that this broadened focus (really one where they link carefully link intentions to their behavior AND maintain a keen awareness of the impact of their behavior on others) might represent BOTH “real integrity” and “real self-awareness.”
What do you think about this hypothesis? Is integrity linked to more than simply our behavior as leaders? Should integrity also take into account the impact of our behavior on others, or is that just situational ethics? Is keen self-awareness an important part of displaying “real integrity?”
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