Tips for Stress free life  >  Expert Zone   > Inspirational

       Inspirational Tips by experts


Maintaining Honesty and Integrity


(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 The CEO agreed, and the next thing the employee knew, the bill was gone and the charges were rescinded.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 reservedworldwide. To subscribe to Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine, go tohttp://Jim-Rohn.InspiresYOU.com


MORE RESOURCES:

See the complete list of Articles on Inspiration here

Have a look at Best Selling Books on Inspiration

 

Google

See also : Other articles on

Depression, Grief-loss, Elder Care Relationships
Inspiration, Inspirational, Motivation,
Positive Attitude
,  Meditation, Spirituality


 

Latest info on : Inspiration

 


Inspirational school gains a top Ofsted mark
Reading Evening Post, UK - 3 hours ago
School inspectors who recently visited the primary described it as “inspirational” and “excellent”. Lead Ofsted inspector Janet Sinclair said: “This is an ...
Joy at good report Redditch Advertiser
School comes top of the class after Ofsted inspection Southern Daily Echo
all 3 news articles


Inspirational mum receives national award
Skegness Standard, UK - 3 hours ago
By helen bell Tuesday, 4.12pm - INSPIRATIONAL mum Sandi Adams, of Skegness, has received a national award in recognition of the way she coped with losing ...


Lockhart inspirational for Bangor
Belfast Telegraph, United Kingdom - Oct 6, 2008
Bangor manager Marty Quinn must be thanking his lucky stars that he persuaded 34-year old former Glentoran and Crusaders midfield star Darren Lockhart not ...


Inspirational Stores Raises €10 Million
Private Equity Hub, MA - Oct 6, 2008
Inspirational Stores, a Paris-based provider of online marketing solutions for high-end and niche consumer brands, has raised €10 million in second-round ...
Atlas Venture invests $14M in Inspirational Stores Mass High Tech
all 2 news articles


CTV British Columbia

Inspirational stories abound at run
Telegraph-Journal, Canada - Oct 6, 2008
The same is true for breast-cancer survivor Lorie Gillies, who agreed to give the opening ceremony's inspirational talk. She told the crowd that, ...
Nanaimo survivors show spirit and share inspirational stories Nanaimo Daily News
all 28 news articles


BBC Sport

Ballesteros 'stable' in hospital
BBC Sport, UK - 22 hours ago
Ballesteros also played an inspirational role in the Ryder Cup, winning 20 points from 37 matches, as well as captaining Europe to victory at the Spanish ...


French Inspirational Stores inspires VCs for 10m Euros series B ...
TechCrunch, CA - Oct 5, 2008
Paris Based Inspirational Stores will announce tomorrow a 10 million euros series B round lead by Atlas Ventures and OTC asset Management. ...


Suzuki and Laumann to be honoured at fall convocation
NorthernLife.ca, Canada - 2 hours ago
One of Canada's most inspirational leaders, she's a beloved athlete and best-selling author. As the reigning world champion rower, she fought back from a ...
Pair will receive honorary degrees in November Sudbury Star
all 2 news articles


A Leader Becomes a Leader: Inspirational Stories of Leadership for ...
PR-CANADA.net (press release), Montenegro - Oct 5, 2008
He will be taking questions on business, philanthropy and leadership, and signing copies of his book, A Leader Becomes a Leader: Inspirational Stories of ...


Inspiring Stories about America's Favorite Pastime from America's ...
MarketWatch - Oct 3, 2008
These first-person accounts of success or failure, personal change and the triumph of the human spirit include some of the most revealing and inspirational ...
More than apple pie Chicago Tribune
all 7 news articles

Inspirational - Google News

 

Why not be an expert yourself  ?

 If you can write on any of the above topic, you are welcome to submit your
 articles in our database :

 Submit your article here   Our Article Area

You are here Home > Tips for Stress free Life > Expert Zone > Inspirational Tips


| Inspirational Tips Home | Inspirational Tips - Complete list 

| Main Home | | Meditation Corner

                |Health Tips  | Workplace Tips  | Soul Tips  |Expert Zone  |

Recommend us  |

 Books, DVDs and accessories on meditation & yoga  |

[About us] [Contact] [Privacy Policy]

Copyright 2006, Meditation is Easy.com, All rights reserved