Integrity in business - at what expense?

According to Wikipedia, “Integrity is consistency of actions, values, methods, measures and principles.”

Integrity is often described to be the YES to these following questions:

1. Can you stay true to your words?

2. Do you deliver what you say you deliver? 

3. Do you turn yourself inside out to deliver for your client?

4. Do you do the right things even when no one is looking?

5. Do you treat others with respect, equally, regardless of rank, status, religion, race?

We live in a world where “the end justifies the means” has become an acceptable school of thought for far too many.

Customer service representatives cover up a mistake they made because they are afraid the client will leave them.

Employees call in “sick” because they don’t have any more paid time off when they actually just need to get their personal errands done.

Sales people over promise and under deliver, all in the name of making their target for the month.

Applicants exaggerate in job interviews because they desperately need a job.

The list could go on and on, and in each case the person committing the act of dishonesty told themselves they had a perfectly valid reason why the end result justified their lack of integrity.

Being ethical in business means maintaining a high level of personal integrity.

You can choose to:

1. Brand yourself through your professional presence.
2. Brand yourself as a valued partner.
3. Brand yourself with strong communication skills.
4. Brand yourself by staying one step ahead.
5. Brand yourself as being social savvy.
6. You can use Integrity as your personal branding = your core values.

Personal branding is what you're known (or famous) for. Make sure your personal branding is the real you. Don't be one and the other (if you've read Ellen Degeneres case, you'll know what I mean) you can read about it here. Building a personal branding out of something that isn't you, can turn out ugly.

If you want to build a professional career, you should have integrity. As a business owner, having integrity will help delivering better qualities of service to your customers and clients, it also means you take care of your team members, respecting them and treating them with value. enabling you to have a more thriving business. As an entrepreneur, integrity is how you create your product and services and staying true to delivering the best value you can give.

Despite a great pressure to do otherwise, ethical business managers live by a moral code they believe in, principles to maintain and they fight for their beliefs – without sacrificing their honor for the sake of just getting a job done.

Building a reputation of integrity takes years, but it takes only a second to lose, so never allow yourself to ever do anything that would damage your integrity.

This is how you earn the trust of others, whether they are your customers, team or your superiors. In this definition integrity means having a consistent character that is demonstrated by an alignment of your thoughts, words and action.

Sometimes it requires you to have moral courage to do the right thing, and it takes inner strength to live up to mistakes and admit when a fault has been made.

When you take money for a service or a product, you must stand behind that service or product with everything you have. That business transaction is a test of your integrity.

Integrity and consistency are intertwined. People who are consistent in their actions are seen as people with a high degree of integrity.

Oprah says, “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” This is true. If you practice situational ethics – doing the right thing only when you’re in the public eye — you aren’t really a person of high integrity, you’re just pretending to be one. Besides, it’s hard to act one way in public, and another in private. So, to be safe, follow Oprah’s advice. Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do – not because you’ll get credit, or avoid getting into trouble.

Do you deliver what you say you deliver? Do you turn yourself inside out to deliver for your client? Being in integrity does not mean that you can always deliver (yes we are still humans), but it does mean that you will do everything in your power to do so. That's the difference.

It means that we make sure we get things done the right way, and we pour our efforts into making things happen.

When you stand behind your word, and do everything you say, then you will soon learn to measure your word, not giving it lightly, and not giving it often. And when you do give it, there’s power and magic in it, because what you say you’ll do, you’ll do. 

John Maxwell is a well-known business author. One of his books sends the same message. It’s called, There’s No Such Thing As Business Ethics: There’s Only One Rule for Making Decisions. According to John, that rule is the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In other words, do the right thing.

Mark Twain once said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” In other words, if you’re always a person of high integrity, it’s easy to be a person of high integrity; there are no complicating factors – like remembering what you did or said in a given situation.

Your integrity can be your PERSONAL BRANDING, your core values.

As a business, your brand integrity will help you stand the test of time, turbulence, and raging storms as you are consistent with what you promise to deliver.

As an individual, if you want to brand yourself as a person of high integrity, be a person of high integrity ALL the time – not just when it suits you, or when someone might notice. 

#1 rule : Stay true to yourselves. Life is simpler that way anyway.

What are your thoughts?