Integrity of Character

My wife gave me a book entitled The Daily Drucker last year for father's day and it's one of a few books I see myself reading through retirement. As the title suggests, it contains '366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done' authored by Peter Drucker. The first day deals with Integrity in Leadership and begins with:

The proof of the sincerity and seriousness of a management is uncompromising emphasis on integrity of character. This, above all, has to be symbolized in management's "people" decisions. For it is character through which leadership is exercised; it is character that sets the example and is imitated. Character is not something one can fool people about.

I believe many of us understand what it means to have integrity of character, but the challenge for all of us is how we consistently demonstrate integrity. I've mentioned before how lack of integrity has cost me my job as a teenager, and we now know after the Enron verdict what happens to top-level executives if they fail to demonstrate integrity even if they haven't broken any rules. I've always had a view that only 20% of business decisions are black and white, the rest is gray. For example, what would you do if you catch one of your top-performers cheating on his expense report or saying a sexist remark? Let's make it even more challenging and say that this top-performer has been delivering 110% of his targets for the last 4 quarters?

Most of us will probably ask, how much did the person cheat the company or what was the sexist remark. It's not black and white, but these are the "people" decisions that Peter Drucker referred to which symbolized integrity of character in an organization. In fact, I was faced with a similar decision just this week and I chose the path of termination over an issue of a couple of hundred dollars. I still hold some respect for the individual especially how he dealt with the separation, but I felt that it was simply the right thing to do.

I should highlight a more subtle message in Drucker's message which has to do with what happens to other people when a leader demonstrates integrity of character. He says, " it is character through which leadership is exercised; it is character that sets the example and is imitated."

I was having a discussion with a colleague who described the dilemma of his best-friend who was an officer in the military and a man of integrity. He said that he wants to be a role-model for the younger officers, but he realizes that those in more prominent leadership positions all the way to the generals, have compromised their integrity to move up the ranks. To be a more visible role-model, he finds that he would need to make a few 'practical' choices.

I've had my share of 'career-limiting' decisions, but I've also discovered that as I make the tough decisions such as firing a top-performer for cheating, I found more and more people deferring to my judgement. I didn't have to be a VP to influence people; as Drucker puts it, I just had to demonstrate character. Furthermore, my overwhelming goal as of 13 years ago when I got married and 10 years ago when our son was born, was to be the best role-model for my wife and son. I don't need to be a president or a general to achieve this.

Return on Integrity

I'm hoping to compile anecdotes from business leaders out there who believe that personal integrity is key to success and it pays to be honest. I thought of using ROI (return on investment), but substituting 'I' with Integrity, as another way to state my objective. That is, if you believe as I do, that one can derive positive returns on his investment on living a life of integrity, then I ask that you help me be role-models for our future generation of business leaders.

The other reason why I'm writing this is to thank my parents for being wonderful role-models of integrity. Like all parents, they've had their share of wrong decisions, but they've made every effort to do the right thing even if it meant having less food on the table. In the end, they were blessed with five kids whom they've been able to put through college.

I've mentioned integrity several times, so just to make sure that we're talking about the same thing, I'd like to reference wikipedia with it's definition of integrity:

INTEGRITY, n. 1. quality of being honest and up-right in character : commercial ~ , 2. condition of being complete.

Integrity comprises the personal inner sense of "wholeness" deriving from honesty and consistent uprightness of character. The etymology of the word relates it to the Latin adjective integer (whole, complete). Evaluators, of course, usually assess integrity from some point of view, such as that of a given ethical tradition or in the context of an ethical relationship.

While this blog focuses on business, but by definition, integrity applies to ones personal life as well.

A quick blurb about me
I've been working since I was 12 delivering newspapers in Palo Alto (California), spent almost 2 decades working at a large software company, and now president of a startup company (in Asia). I've discovered 'easy' ways to make money and I've seen people of low-integrity move up the corporate ladder ahead of me. I was also fortunate enough to be fired from work in my teenage years for doing something dishonest. I've been married for 13 years and have been blessed with a wonderful boy. Just like my parents, I'd like to teach our son that it pays to be honest and there are lots of people in this world like his mom and dad.

I've got several stories to share, such as my first lesson in dishonesty - being fired at a place where my dad also worked, my corporate battles and trade-off with carreer mobility, and how twice I got my cellphone back after falling out of my pocket while watching a movie.

But, I'd like to stop now and find out if there's anyone out there who shares my views. I'm looking forward to hearing from anyone.