LEADERSHIP INTEGRITY isn’t easy to maintain. The term is tossed around fairly freely in leadership discussions, but often without mentioning is the hard realities of a refusal to be compromised.
No, that doesn’t mean that we cannot negotiate a workable compromise.
Being compromised is altogether different than compromising on matters that can be negotiated without giving up one’s own principles of conduct. This is true for leaders especially because their decisions have effects far beyond just themselves.
Where a genuine challenge to integrity is involved, whether we’re in the C-Suite or in the C-ubicle, we may find ourselves standing at that thin bright red line where compromise crosses over into being compromised. The decisions won’t be easy at that point in our career.
We may seek advice. Of course, no one can tell us what to do. Not our mentor, not our coach, not our spouse. (If it’s a matter of interest for our minister or lawyer, then what we should do is probably already a given, and we’re actually looking for validation more than advice.)
Either way, the decision we make may very well affect us for the rest of our lives, financially, psychologically, emotionally, and establish the framework for our future course of action based on the kind of person we believe we are.
That is why we need to continually prepare ourselves for the difficult decision of holding to our principles. The cost of violating our own code of ethics cannot be measured in dollars.
