Integrity

Integrity

God, you are absolutely who you claim to be. Keep me true to myself.

The integrity of the upright guides them. Proverbs 11:3, NIV

Integrity is being what I claim to be and doing what I promise to do. A great leader must demonstrate personal integrity.

YOU MADE me, and you know me better than I know myself. Make certain that my personal character is always consistent with the leadership role I must fill. I want my leadership role to make me a better person. Only you can do this in me.

You know how I want people to agree with me and believe in me. It is so easy for me to say what others want to hear instead of what I honestly feel or believe. It is so natural for me to commit before I am positive I can deliver because someone needs something and I want to give it. Oh, God, set your Spirit at the door of my mouth, and guard what I say. Keep me honest and realistic.

Lord, in our markets, image is everything. My own image as the leader is a highly visible part of our organizational image. So often I am all that people know about the organization, and they read the fine print of what they see in me. If I do not seem genuine to them, they will assume the organization is not genuine either. Protect me from even the slightest fault of acting out of character.

Lord, I am not the leader every moment, but I am myself every moment. Those I lead depend on my integrity. Do not let me ever embarrass them, not as their leader and not as the real me inside the leader role. Make them safe in their dependence on me.

Don’t let the fame and visibility that go with this leadership role fool me into forgetting the difference between myself and my role. Don’t let me make the blunder of needing to be a celebrity. But by your grace, God, I would really love to be a genuine hero. I long to make a great difference in people’s lives. I want to walk away someday and know that together we did something special and that we all became better people in the process. You can give the celebrity to someone else who needs it, God. Show me what I have to do to be an invisible hero, and empower me to do it.

God, you are absolutely who you claim to be. Keep me true to myself.

Reflections

The university had just managed to get through a very tough financial year. As CEO I had asked everyone to share in the sacrifices required to balance the budget. Many expenditure cuts had been needed, including a six-month delay in staff salary increases, but we ended the year in the black.

The board wanted to reward my leadership. They knew that I was being recruited by other organizations and that the year ahead looked strong, so they decided to give me a significant compensation boost. I thanked them for the intent of their affirmation but urged them to reconsider.

I needed to demonstrate fidelity to the fairness values we had invoked for the whole organization, even when it would have been easy to hide behind the justifiable action of the board. Finding wisdom on the matter, the board offered me deferred income if future financial results supported it. The event passed without much notice.

Integrity means being what you claim to be and doing what you promise to do.

I found out years later that the faculty was indeed watching for integrity—of a CEO who would share the sacrifice and a board that would risk losing their CEO. During the planning process for the next year, broad discretion was granted to the administration and the board, the reward for simple integrity.