You lie. Actually, you lie often, probably several times a day without even realizing it. We all do. In his book, The Day America Told the Truth, James Patterson says that when Americans were asked if they lie regularly, 91 percent responded yes.
Yet study after study has proven that the number one attribute that people feel makes a leader powerful is integrity.
Leaders, we must remember, include not only those who hold positions of power, but also those who have the personal power to persuade others. Most individuals, when asked if they live their lives with integrity, would agree that they do, and yet there are hundreds of ways in which people, including those considered leaders, fail to keep their word every day.
Most of these exceptions are considered standard business fare and are rarely brought to light as exceptions to honesty.
Here are some examples of those slips that rob us of our personal leadership power:
A manager tells her people a standard of performance that she expects. When her employees don’t meet the standard, she chooses to avoid the conflict and doesn’t confront the exception. By not addressing the exception, she basically has said that what she declared was important is not that important.
A project leader calls an 8 a.m. meeting. Several people come late. Those people have not lived up to their word because they were not there when they said they would be. They have shown a lack of integrity.
Jay, the computer programmer, said he would have the project concluded by Friday. On Friday, the end is nowhere in sight.
This sounds too harsh, you say. Jay didn’t lie. He was held up by others and just got behind. That may be true, but he had a commitment. A commitment that he did not meet. Missed deadlines, late arrivals at meetings, and failures to confront unacceptable work are common because we can find a seemingly legitimate excuse for every exception. The amazing thing about excuses is that they sound so good—so legitimate. Sometimes, they even attract empathy. But however legitimate or convincing it sounds, an excuse is an excuse and a story is a story.
People who are leaders, whether by virtue of a position they hold or simply because of the personal power they possess, commit themselves to integrity. In the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hatches an Egg, Horton the elephant is asked by Mayzie, the bird who laid the egg, to lie on her egg until she returns from a short trip. Mayzie gets wrapped up with enjoying her freedom and chooses not to return. Horton is left to sit on the egg. Through ice storms, safari hunts, and an unwelcome trip to the zoo, Horton perseveres. As he meets each challenge that rubs against his commitment, he repeats, “I said what I meant and I meant what I said, an elephant is faithful, 100 percent.”
Horton understood the power of commitment and decided that he should live by his word—in spite of the fact that the rules had changed, in spite of the exceptions, in spite of the stories, and in spite of the fact that others let him down. If there ever was an elephant that was a leader, it was Horton. He did what he said.
His actions were consistent with his words. Most importantly, he managed to live by his word when excuses were abundant.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could count on Hortons in your workplace? Better yet, wouldn’t it be great if you could live like Horton? Your colleagues need you to. If I were the egg, I’d hang with Horton. He’s my leader.
