Completely out of our plan what to talk and write about but it seems to be important. And shouldn’t we take up an individual question during these special times – right before Christmas 2020 after a more than “stormy” year?
Why is integrity always mentioned in relation with business, society, and environment? This question was raised during our last sparring – a client was confronted with a major decision. Is it? I have another perspective on that and people in my “ecosystem” already know about it.
“Integrity is far more than only another KPI to be measured. It is our root cause and driver.”
Anchoring integrity for success
The roots of integrity – no matter in which context we would like to bring up the topic – goes back to the individual value system of each single person involved in the system we take into consideration.
Reflecting three different systems we currently impact with your integrity outlines the different use cases. A very simple and most common set of examples could be “Family, Friends and Work”. All the three systems have an at least slightly different understanding of their common values and integrity.
The implementation process of these values, beliefs and behaviour allow system to anchor those. Often seen is, that the strategic part of implementing a culture of integrity is completed with enthusiastic and implementation lacks. But this is another topic to be taken up in one of our next discussion. What I would like to foster on is that integrity needs to be anchored. On a system level and on an individual level to allow a successful strategy, implementation, and re-mediation process.
The power of an individual anchor
Coming back to the initial question raised by our member about personal integrity in a decision-making process. I assume we all agree that integrity is rooted on an individual level and brought into the different systems we act in. And of course, depending on our biases we carry with us (yes, we all have those and fall into the bias-traps all the time….) we are not always fully aligned with our values and beliefs.
What is the power of our individual integrity anchor in an important decision-making process? In short: It immediately guides us back to the roots. I have different case studies where leaders anchor back to their integrity – sometime several times a day.
How to anchor integrity
There is one example of a CEO of a global multi-corporate. Since she was a young adult she dreamed about a ring and it took her several years of saving her – at that time very decent income – to buy it. But before that: A life-change incident in her live reminded her how important it is to trust herself and standing-in for her beliefs. To remember and anchor this personal insight she bought that ring and wears it since then.
Another serial entrepreneur had his own ritual when he had to decide – no matter whether it is on a personal or business-related topic. He reminds himself about his dream and how close he will come by deciding into one or the other direction. He told me a few days ago that the was confronted with the question whether he should invest into a specific real estate for his family where they could live in. There were as often very rational factors combined with different emotions from all family members. He and his wife individually consulted their own anchor. For him it was the dream and vision he has.
There are many other case studies we discussed lately, and it is great to see how leaders have different approaches
- Anchor
- Re-connect
- Decide
based on their individual integrity, value, and belief system. It is always very inspiring to see how different the anchors are, but they all have something in common: they exist!
How about your anchor reminding you what is important for you? What your vision and dreams are? And what is the anchor of your organisation you lead? Do you talk about it with your peers, employees?
Yes, integrity is about dreams. Individual dreams and visions, becoming true by following the calling and purpose, leading into game-changing lives and organisation.
Yours,
Sonja
