Leaders think and act long-term knowing their integrity is everything.
In our professional lives, you will often deal with the same people and organizations again and again. A reputation for honesty and character matters. People don’t keep making business deals with those they cannot trust. If they see other organizations burned by your behavior, their organization is less likely to hire you.
Those who lack integrity can win in the short term. After all, deception can enable an individual to succeed in the moment when people buy the lie. However, it is a poor long-term strategy.
There was a CEO who personified duplicity. For his short tenure, it enabled him to win what he could not achieve with leadership, logic, or evidence. The organization who had hired him missed the obvious: no other company in their industry had ever been so stupid as to make him the CEO despite several decades in the profession.
However, by the end, people had his number.
Now he leaves that organization and decides to seek CEO positions at other organizations. What happens? Deceit only works in secret and secrets often have short lives.
In today’s world, repeated wrongdoing will eventually be witnessed or documented. It need not result in immediate action like litigation, regulatory sanctions, bad press, lost sales and revenue, or criminal investigation for it to still be known.
Once it is known, new opportunities begin to end. This same CEO has now sought CEO positions in several different organizations within a short time frame only to receive zero interest. He does not understand it but he is effectively unemployable as a leader.
More attempts to get new CEO jobs will end with the same predictable result. The industry does not share his delusion of tremendous success in his last CEO job. All they think about is his lack of trustworthiness.
The point is simple yet still missed by those who think no price will be paid for their unethical conduct. It may take time but the bill will come due. When it does, it will be expensive. Others might have paid the price for your dishonesty in the past. Now, you will.
Make integrity your brand. Do not ever act unethically in the moment thinking that now is all that matters. Lead like everyone will know the truth because they will.
#LeadershipLessonswithDrSaviak #Integrity
