Leading with integrity

People in the UK have rightfully felt hurt by the revelations from No.10 and many people are expressing that. It’s not just the fact the parties have happened that distresses people but the excuses or spin put on explaining those events.

While we express our hurt we should not lose sight of the fact that all of us have probably at one time broken the rules and then tried to cover our tracks. I certainly have! The best thing for me was getting caught as an 8-year old and the subsequent realisation, helped by the way my parents handled my failings, that telling the truth was always the best option despite the immediate consequences.

Instead of just expressing our dismay, we should also use this opportunity to think about what we as leaders can learn from this situation. In Moringa one of the key leadership principles we talk about is that all leaders lead out of who they are. A compassionate person makes for a compassionate leader. An angry person makes for an angry leader. If someone has a habit of spinning the truth they take that habit into their leadership. Who we are is the foundation of how we lead.

If you accept that as true then there are a lot of questions that follow. How is character formed and how can we address the character flaws we all have? How much time should leaders give to character formation as opposed to skill development? What happens when we are led by someone who doesn’t lead with integrity?

That last question is one I sometimes get asked. It’s not an easy one to answer but one thing we can all seek to do in our places of work is give others permission to challenge us if they believe we are not living with integrity. Creating an open culture of mutual accountability, so that we are able to challenge each other’s behaviour, as well as the motivations and intentions that lie beneath, will produce a much healthier context for everyone. As an outsider looking in, it doesn’t look like such a culture existed within No.10. Perhaps if it had, the present political crisis would have been avoided.