My grandparents believed that you were either honest or you were not.
There was no middle point. They had a simple saying hanging on their living-room wall:
"Life is like a field of newly fallen snow. Where I choose to walk every step will show."
They didn't have to talk about it; they demonstrated this truth by their life style.
They understood instinctively that integrity involves having a personal standard
of morality and boundaries that does not sell out to convenience and that is not
relative to the situation at hand. Integrity is an inner compass for judging your behavior.
Unfortunately, integrity is in short supply today - and getting scarcer.
But it is the real bottom line in every area of society and a discipline
we must demand of ourselves.
A good test for this value is to apply what I call the "Integrity Triangle",
which consists of three key principles:
Stand firmly for your convictions when confronted with personal pressure.
There's a story told about a surgical nurse's assistance during her first day
on the medical team at a well-known hospital. She was responsible for ensuring that
all surgical instruments and materials were accounted for during an operation.
The nurse said to the surgeon, "You've only removed 11 sponges, and we used 12.
We need to find the last one." "I removed them all, "the surgeon assured her. "We'll close now."
"You can't do that, sir," protested the nurse. "Think of the patient."
Smiling, the surgeon lifted his foot and showed the nurse the twelfth sponge.
"You'll do just fine in this or any other hospital," he assured her.
When you know you're right, you can't concede. Always give others credit that is rightfully theirs.
Don't be afraid of those who might have a better idea
or who might even be more intelligent than you are.
David Ogilvy, founder of the advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather,
clarified this point to his newly appointed office heads by sending each of them
a Russian nesting doll with five progressively smaller figures inside.
His message was contained in the smallest doll: "If each of us hires people who
are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.
But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are,
Ogilvy & Mather will become a company of giants. "And that is precisely what O & M became - one of
the largest and most respected advertising organizations in the world.
Be honest and open about who you really are. People who lack genuine core values rely on external
factors - their looks or status - in order to feel good about themselves.
Inevitably, they will do everything they can to preserve this false mask,
but they will do very little to enhance their inner value and personal growth.
So be yourself. Don't engage in a personal cover-up of areas that are unpleasing in your life.
"Tough times never last but tough people do," as Robert Schuller says.
In other words, face reality and be mature in your responses to life’s challenges.
Self-respect and a clear conscience are powerful components of integrity and are
the basis for enriching your relationships with others.
Integrity means you do what you do because it's right
and not just fashionable or politically correct.
A life of principle, of not yielding to the tempting attractions of an easy morality,
will always win the day. It will take you forward into the twenty-first
century without having to check your tracks in a rear-view mirror.
My grandparents taught me that.