5 Essential Behaviours You Need To Maintain Your Integrity as a Leader

How do you maintain your integrity as a leader?

This research from the Institute of Leadership and Management showed that while 83% of managers say their organizations have value statements, only 38% consider they are closely aligned to those statements. 63% of people surveyed did not agree. That’s a huge disconnect.  This must call into question managers integrity as a leader.

It’s becoming increasingly clear we need a business world where ethics, values and integrity are priorities for customers and employees alike. For any business to compete, the values statement must be a living document which action is taken on.  If you are in charge, you must know implementing your values statement will help to maintain your integrity as a leader.

It all starts with the leader

If the leader can’t walk the talk on values and ethics. It matters not what the rest of the team are doing. It is the leader who sets the tone.

One of the problems highlighted in the research was that there was much confusion about what ethical behaviour constituted. In my own experience, I have seen leaders lose the trust and respect of their employees when they have overstepped the boundaries not only of their value statements but when they have failed to display the following behaviours.

1. Keeping your word

I’ve seen leaders fall into this trap many times. Typically, a leader will say they are going to do something. It might be around reward or terms of employment, or even improving something. Then, in the end, nothing happens.  Mostly this occurs not because leaders are disingenuous with their promises. It is because of procrastination. The trouble with procrastinating on a promise is by the time you get around to following through, you have already lost the trust and confidence of your team.

2. Making fair decisions

I worked with a client who had clearly lost trust in her CEO. Part of the work she carried out was approving applications from people who needed to qualify for certain services. She had received an application from a high profile person who clearly did not meet the criteria. My client was disappointed and disillusioned to find out this person had been qualified by her CEO, as “an exception”.  Just one badly skewed decision can result in losing the respect of your team forever.

3. Practising non-judgment

There is a fine distinction between passing judgment in terms of good and bad, and that of discerning what is wanted and unwanted. I remember an instance when an employee had lost their job. They had stolen some money from a business I was working with. The employee was immediately fired.  The business had no choice. Not only to show this behaviour wasn’t wanted, or acceptable, but to make sure it didn’t happen again. It turns out, however, the employee had been suffering from extreme stress. As a result, had been acting completely out of character. The CEO recognizing this helped the employee to get the right help to get their life on track.

The CEO would never have been able to do this if they had judged the person. The trick here is to do something about unwanted behaviours but to still care for the person in a non-judgmental way. I was talking to a governor of a prison, and she concluded that the majority of people in her institute were there in situations which she termed “Oh but for the grace of God there go I”.

4. Giving credit where it’s due

Hands up if you’ve ever been in a board meeting, and you know someone is claiming credit for something one of their subordinates have done? I’ve seen this happen time and time again and the negative effect on a team can be permanently damaging. Even if you have headed up or initiated a project or piece of work, always give credit to the team who have helped you get the result.

5. Communicating honestly

It’s always easy, to be honest with your team when the news is good. The problem is when there is bad or controversial news to be communicated. I have seen leaders stall or procrastinate using excuses which sound worthy but are misguided.  Sometimes leaders think they are protecting their people, or saving them from unnecessary worry by not being honest about what’s happening. But in my experience, when leaders aren’t straight, the team almost always find out, with disastrous results in destroyed trust, and it’s key to avoid this by maintaining your integrity as a leader.