Doris Young Associates'
Young Thoughts
Volume 7 Issue VIII
August, 2007
IN THIS ISSUE
Without Integrity Nothing Works
On The Lighter Side
Without Integrity Nothing WorksReal integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.
(Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), in Good Housekeeping Without integrity nothing works so why do so many people have difficulty maintaining their integrity in life. Many people come late to work or meetings and don't do complete work. It's considered normal in too many workplaces or hospitals. But in a world that really works, people need to be depended on to be where they say they will be when they say they will be there. A person's word must be something people can count on. Integrity is one of the most important of virtues. It’s also perhaps the most puzzling. For our discussion here, integrity is seen primarily as a formal relation one has to oneself, or between parts or aspects of one's self. Specifically, being of integrity as the integration of self, integrity as maintenance of identity, integrity as standing for something, and integrity as a virtue. We can get a sense of the variety of ways in which people use the term ‘integrity’ by examining ways that diminish a person's integrity. On the one hand we have character traits and ways of behaving and thinking that tend to maintain the status quo even where acting with integrity demands a change. Ways of being like arrogance, stubbornness, extremism, resistance, self-righteousness, and rigidity interfere with an individual’s integrity by suppressing an individual ability to critically assess and balance their desires, commitments, wishes, and changing goals. For example, refusing to acknowledge that circumstances are inconsistent with what works for an individual is a lack of integrity. An individual may be too afraid to state his or her convictions or refuse to acknowledge new or overriding commitments. In one case staying in a situation may indicate a lack of integrity, while in a different case, abandoning would indicate such a lack. On the other side, fickleness, pettiness, weakness of will, self-deception, self-ignorance, deception, and indifference may chip away at integrity. These don’t undermine the status quo as much as they make it impossible to discern stable features in one's life, and in one's relations to others. The person of integrity lives in a fragile balance between every one of these all-too-human traits. Some people will be more prone to a certain ways of being that challenge integrity than others. Integrity is person-relative and may even be situation-relative. Each individual must take time in order to determine and understand what’s valuable in his or her life and worth doing. A person of integrity is not constrained to give moral, other-oriented answers to this question. If people fail to act on their core commitments, through self-deception, weakness of will, cowardice, or even ignorance, then to this extent they may be said to lack integrity. A person's integrity is only at issue when their deepest, most characteristic, or core convictions and aspirations are brought into play. However, we expect persons of integrity to behave with integrity in many different contexts, not only those of central importance to them. Integrity, in this view, requires that persons act out of their own convictions, that is, out of commitments with which they identify. Otherwise, an individual may demonstrate a lack of integrity by not carrying out an activity as it was meant to be done. Individuals who are honest with themselves can acknowledge that lack of integrity is merely an indication that some questions or concerns are present and sharing or making a course correction is necessary to be in integrity. Maintaining integrity is a continuous rebalancing and reevaluation process that may take more effort for those who have not felt free to share feelings and stand for their convictions. Doris Young is a leadership coach, speaker, and author. To contact her for your complementary coaching session please call 757 624-9603.
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