The Number One Value for Every Legacy Leader: Integrity

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

There are many possibilities for values that drive a Legacy Leader but one is a nonnegotiable. That nonnegotiable is Integrity. Integrity, according to Dictionary.com means, “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness: the state of being whole and undivided.” Just think about how important that is for anyone we entrust to lead us.

In today’s world, the personification of that definition of integrity seems in very short supply. Our political leaders appear to embrace the opposite position, and that goes for both parties and both national and state level elected officials. And business leaders aren’t much better.

I totally understand that no one is perfect and that we all make mistakes. The occasional failure to live up to the ideal can be forgiven and if our leaders own up to their failure and seek followers forgiveness, the rank and file will, most likely, be quick to forgive. But leaders who continuously break the trust of the rank and file or who are excessively secretive and inaccessible, those leaders will not be trusted.

One thing too many leaders fail to realize is that without the trust of the people, productivity will be limited. To supercharge organizational productivity requires trust and belief in a vision. Legacy Leaders understand this and they know how important integrity is. If you want to be a Legacy Leader, you should remember one important thing; it’s all about building trusting relationships. Integrity is the fastest route to building those trusting relationships.

The path of the Legacy Leader is a hard path. If it was easy to follow all leaders would be on that path. It’s not complicated but it takes more dedication, energy, patience, and persistence than most people are willing to invest but the payoff is huge. When the day is done and you look back on where you’ve been, you will have the satisfaction of being able to say we did great things together and we accomplished so much. Being a Legacy Leader is hard work but more satisfying work will not be found.