When we talk about a person of integrity, we refer to the value of living with uprightness, goodness, and honesty that is understood as irreproachable, that is, without any circumstance for which he may be ashamed or regretful.
Maybe you’ve heard the story about the couple who left a motel and found a wallet; when they opened it, they discovered a large amount of money inside, as well as the owner’s identification.
They looked for the wallet’s owner until they found him and returned it to him with everything inside. The owner of the wallet, who was also a journalist, asked them to agree to do a story about honesty and how they had returned his belongings for his newspaper. The man told him it couldn’t be done because the woman he was with wasn’t his wife.
This is a story about truth and deception. They were truthful in returning the money, but dishonest with the man’s wife. You may be wondering how someone can be honest while lacking integrity. Honesty speaks to me of decency and respectability. Integrity refers to a person’s character quality of always being the same, regardless of the circumstances.
Integrity is possibly the most important quality in a person and a business. The pressures that many organizations face today have resulted in an almost sole focus on results. This sometimes leads us to consider achieving the goal at any cost, which in the long run leads to a loss of trust in employees, customers, partners, and the organization’s purpose.
The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, or moral rectitude, is defined as integrity. Keeping oneself within conscious standards is a personal choice. Integrity is defined in ethics as the honesty, truthfulness, or accuracy of one’s actions. Being consistent in one’s thinking, speaking, and acting.
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Are you truly trustworthy in business?
We must never lose sight of our goal of being the company of choice for our customers, one they can fully rely on. If we are not well grounded in the way, it is very easy to get lost along the way. To win business, we may be tempted to tell a lie or exaggerate some aspect of the product or service we offer, but that attitude takes us away from our identity.
How can we be unjust in business and unjustly build our homes? When we conceal part of the truth to persuade the customer that the service or product, we offer is better than it is; when we promise some performance that the product or service does not have; or when we commit to deadlines that we know we will be unable to meet.
But also, when we fail to pay our employees on time, or when we pay them less than what we know is fair to make a few extra dollars. Integrity extends not only to our clients, but also to those who work for us; maintaining a cohesive team, free of complaints, and eager to assist the company in achieving its goals goes hand in hand with being a boss with integrity in every sense.
The 8 Attitudes to cultivate to do business with Integrity
Integrity is a way of life; it cannot be a fad or something we do just to be fashionable or to look good. Here are the 8 attitudes we need to have to do business with integrity:
- Keep your word; I had a friend who refused to sign contracts because he believed that his word was a contract. That should be our attitude: always keeping our promises and believing that our word is worth a contract.
- Control your emotions; if we keep our emotions in check, we won’t let an upset lead us to say or do inappropriate things.
- Be truthful and upright so that our customers and associates can have complete trust in us.
- Maintain a consistent attitude; your values and principles should always guide your decisions. There must be coherence between your words and actions.
- Respect yourself and others, and treat others the same way you want to be treated. People who work for you expect a fair wage and prompt payment.
- Act responsibly; Use your free will to help others, to be of service, to do good, and to grow spiritually.
- To avoid inconveniences, communicate clearly; be clear in communications, and ensure that the other party has fully understood the information.
- Pay your debts on time; when someone lends you money, they are assisting you in a time of need; therefore, you must be truthful and repay your debts with gratitude.
We can write thousands of rules and values in our documents, policies, and contracts, but what people really see is how we act. When we have integrity in our business, that attitude will be seen as the city built on a hill, our stakeholders will comment on our integrity to others, and we will gain customers by allowing our testimonials to speak for us.
