(Excerpted From Cultivating An Unshakable Character)
For a leader, honesty and integrity are absolutely essential to survival. A lot of business people don't realize how closely they're being watched by their subordinates. Remember when you were a kid in grammar school, how you used to sit there staring at your teacher all day? By the end of the school year, you could do a perfect imitation of all your teacher's mannerisms. You were aware of the slightest nuances in your teacher's voice - all the little clues that distinguished levels of meaning, that told you the difference between bluff and "now I mean business".
And you were able to do that after eight or nine months of observation. Suppose you had five or 10 years. Do you think there would have been anything about your teacher you didn't know?
Now fast forward and use that analogy as a manager. Do you think there's anything your people don't know about you right this minute? If you haven't been totally aboveboard and honest with them, do you really think you've gotten away with it? Not too likely. But if you've been led to believe that you've gotten away with it, there might be a good probability that people are afraid of you, and that's a problem in its own right.
But there is another side of this coin. In any organization, people want to believe in their leaders. If you give them reason to trust you, they're not going to go looking for reasons to think otherwise, and they'll be just as perceptive about your positive qualities as they are about the negative ones.
A situation that happened some years ago at a company in the Midwest illustrates this perfectly. The wife of a new employee experienced complications in the delivery of a baby. There was a medical bill of more than $10,000, and the health insurance company didn't want to cover it. The employee hadn't been on the payroll long enough, the pregnancy was a preexisting condition, etc,etc,..
In any case, the employee was desperate. He approached the company CEO and asked him to talk to the insurance people. The CEO agreed, and the next thing the employee knew, the bill was gone and the charges were rescinded. Then he told some colleagues about the way the CEO had so readily used his influence with the insurance company, they just shook their heads and smiled. The CEO had paid the bill out of his own pocket, and everybody knew it, no matter how quietly it had been done.
Now an act of dishonesty can't be hidden either, and it will instantly undermine the authority of a leader. But an act of integrity and kindness like the example above is just as obvious to all concerned. When you're in a leadership position, you have the choice of how you will be seen, but you Will be seen one way or the other, make no mistake about it.
One of the most challenging areas of leadership is your family. Leadership of a family demands even higher standards of honesty and integrity, and the stakes are higher too. You can replace disgruntled employees and start over. You can even get a new job for yourself, if it comes to that. But your family can't be shuffled like a deck of cards. If you haven't noticed, kids are great moral philosophers, especially as they get into adolescence. They're determined to discover and expose any kind of hypocrisy, phoniness, or lack of integrity on the part of authority figures, and if we're parents, that means us. It's frightening how unforgiving kids can be about this, but it really isn't a conscious decision on their part; it's just a necessary phase of growing up.
They're testing everything, especially their parents.
As a person of integrity yourself, you'll find it easy to teach integrity to your kids, and they in turn will find it easy to accept you as a teacher. This is a great opportunity and also a supreme responsibility, because kids simply must be taught to tell the truth: to mean what they say and to say what they mean.
"Praise is one the world's most effective teaching and leadership tools. Criticism and blame, even if deserved, are counter productive unless all other approaches have failed."
Now for the other side of the equation, we all know people who have gotten ahead as a result of dishonest or unethical behavior. When you're a kid, you might naively think that never happens, but when you get older, you realize that it does. Then you think you've really wised up. But that's not the real end of it. When you get older, you see the long-term consequences of dishonest gain, and you realize that in the end it doesn't pay.
"Hope of dishonest gain is the beginning of loss". I don't think that old saying refers to loss of money. I think it actually means loss of self-respect. You can have all the material things in the world, but if you've lost respect for yourself, what do you really have? The only way to ever attain success and enjoy it is to achieve it honestly with pride in what you've done.
This isn't just a sermon, it's very practical advice. Not only can you take it to heart - you can take it to the bank.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
To order Jim's best selling CD series Cultivating an Unshakable Character (6 CD's) from our Inventory Blowout Product Special, go to http://jr3.jimrohn.com
Reproduced with permission from Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine. Copyright 2005 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved worldwide. To subscribe to Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine, go to http://Jim-Rohn.InspiresYOU.com
It was my first and last experience with a pneumatic... Read More
All of us recall special teachers - people who not... Read More
You've heard the saying, "You are what you eat." I... Read More
Are you left with inspiration but no action after hearing,... Read More
The beauty in creation is in the process, in every... Read More
Oh, this is a great topic! I remember when I... Read More
Diana is a wonderful person with a great personality and... Read More
Two years ago I was in a wheelchair and told... Read More
Direct Answers - Column for the week of October 21,... Read More
The direction of our lives is determined by the choices... Read More
I looked at my father for the last time before... Read More
When you have your dream clear in your mind and... Read More
My perception is that universe infinitely blesses us every moment.... Read More
What Inspires You? What motivates you to get up in... Read More
The Internet is sometimes criticized (usually by parents who think... Read More
What has become of your fondest dreams?If you were guaranteed... Read More
Direct Answers - Column for the week of November 17,... Read More
(Excerpted From Cultivating An Unshakable Character)For a leader, honesty and... Read More
Direct Answers - Column for the week of November 11,... Read More
It is not very often that I have an issue... Read More
I write and talk a lot about dreams. Primarily because... Read More
Just the other day, I escaped the business of my... Read More
After more than thirty years of studying the Bible I... Read More
Do you have a goal? A focus in life? Have... Read More
Imagine sitting down in a relaxed setting -- a setting... Read More
Plato once said, "It is easy to forgive a small... Read More
Surfing is mindfulness in action. Riding the biggest waves is... Read More
This is a true story. A woman had Snow White... Read More
I walked out of his office inspired. All I could... Read More
I sat down to write my weekly humor column, but... Read More
One day Mr. Shoaff said, "Jim, if you want to... Read More
Did you ever receive a gift in an unexpected place?I... Read More
There is a story about a little girl who suffered... Read More
Loving. It seems like such a simple concept. But those... Read More
Direct Answers - Column for the week of March 17,... Read More
Direct Answers - Column for the week of October 27,... Read More
My students and clients have constantly heard me stress that... Read More
Having spring around makes you feel different after such a... Read More
Let's look at the lesson we should all pay attention... Read More
"Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the... Read More
Child abuse is a much more common event, than is... Read More
The human brain is very much like a hard drive.... Read More
The lines below come from this weeks mind treatment, written... Read More
From my experience some healings come instantly or during short... Read More
The ongoing teachings are exemplified in an understanding and execution... Read More
It was 1:30 A.M. on Friday, December 6, 1991. Patrolman... Read More
There are few enough miracles in life, God knows. I... Read More
Riding a rush, being juiced, flying high-this is the feeling... Read More
Plato once said, "It is easy to forgive a small... Read More
Direct Answers - Column for the week of July 14,... Read More
Today, August 22, 2005, I am clean and sober for... Read More
Sometimes things happen in life for apparently no reason at... Read More
"There are fine things which you mean to do someday,... Read More
Whether it's a holiday, anniversary, birthday or a time in... Read More
Are things busy at your house or workplace? Imagine how... Read More
At the time I created my web site, I was... Read More
My eldest son phoned me the other night to let... Read More
I find of particular interest in the Eastern Religions many... Read More
Kevin had worked as a barber at The Clipper Joint... Read More
You have just completed a major work project before the... Read More
Fourteen years ago I was divorced from my second wife,... Read More
Direct Answers - Column for the week of November 10,... Read More
In the popular movie, "Remember the Titans" most of us... Read More
Have you ever sat down to watch the evening news... Read More
A Story (Source Unknown) ? One day a very wealthy... Read More
It's easy to tell the difference between true inner guidance... Read More
Inspirational |