Day 404 - Leadership 199 / Trait 8 of 14: Integrity

Lived the words I've been sharing yesterday. Took initiative to make yesterday a great day and accomplished that. Early in the day I informed my son to be dressed to go to the YMCA after school, I picked him up and there we went. We decided to kick up the intensity a notch, something I could tell he wasn't sure of. Heck I was apprehensive too, but I knew I could leverage the power of my courage to get it done. In the end we endured a 60 minute session in the free weight room and then polished off the workout with 2 miles of walk/jog combo on the treadmill. Yesterday was an Oh Yeah day!

Onward we carry ourselves into a new day. With us we carry the lessons we've learned which we can revisit at will via these links...
Leadership 199 / Trait 7 of 14: Initiative
Leadership 199 / Trait 6 of 14: Enthusiasm
Leadership 199 / Trait 5 of 14: Endurance
Leadership 199 / Trait 4 of 14: Decisiveness
Leadership 199 / Trait 3 of 14: Courage
Leadership 199 / Trait 2 of 14: Bearing
Leadership 199 / Trait 1 of 14: Dependability

We're halfway through this series, which means we have lots of learning to do yet. Therefore, let us plunge into the power of our eighth trait…

Leadership 199 / Trait 8 of 14: Integrity

Defined: Uprightness of character and soundness of moral principles; includes the qualities of truthfulness and honesty.

Discovered: Let us start in on understanding this trait by visiting this definition backwards. Honesty, is something I will go out on a limb and proclaim that everyone acknowledges that honesty is a trait any leader must possess. No? I agree with my proclamation, I have to else I've been dishonest here; yet while I agree I will tell you now that honesty is not one of the 14 leadership traits.

What? How can that be you say? Look back up at the list above of the traits we've discussed thus far. Take a moment, I'll be right here when you scroll back down... I know, if only scrolling burned measurable calories. OK, having revisited those traits let us ask ourselves this question; Can any of those traits be successfully put into practice if we are not first honest with ourselves in choosing to lead with them?

Leadership is not something we can take on half-hearted. "Do or do not... there is no try", as Master Yoda would say. In short, if we are not honest in our endeavors, either with ourselves or with others, we will not succeed at them in the end.

Living with integrity is certainly dependent upon be honest. But integrity is not just about being honest.

Character, you don't have to know a person for very long to know whether there character is righteous or otherwise. Righteous meaning to be committed to doing what they believe to be right, right by themselves and others.  It is one thing to want what is right, another to do what is right. If our character is to do what is right, we are leading with integrity.

Morals, ah discussion/debate on morality sure can be a sticky-wicket. So lets limit our thought here to what it is about our morals that is essential to leading ourselves to success. To decide what we want to succeed at we first have to know what we want or who we want to be. Or more specifically, how do we want to live? If we can answer that question and come away with an answer gives us a clear picture of how we want to look and why, how we want to conduct yourself and why; we then know where our morals should be set to lead with integrity and succeed.

Da-Point: If we are honest, if we believe our mission to be right and are willing stand up for it's purpose; then we are leading with integrity.

When did you last take time to truly know your character, your moral code?

 
Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!