I was browsing through some articles in Harvard Business Review and came across a short column written by the late Dr. C.K. Prahalad. If you've been on the Tuesday call for a fair amount of time, you would recognize that I have quoted C.K. Prahalad before and just love his book 'Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid' with its revolutionary thoughts. But coming across this column, I would encourage you to go online and read this. It's called 'The Responsible Manager' and is a wonderful collection of things that he thought were important. He says in all his 33 years that he was distinguished Professor of Strategy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, he would start and end every one of his courses by sharing his perspective on how they could become responsible managers. He said, "I have no issues and acknowledge very clearly that you will be successful in terms of income, social status, influence. But remember that you are custodians of society's most powerful institutions. Therefore, you must hold yourself to a higher standard. You must strive to achieve success with responsibility."
He then outlined eleven points, which he felt were critical to us being responsible and being successful.
· Understand the importance of nonconformity. Leadership is about change, hope, and the future. Leaders have to venture into uncharted territory, so they must be able to handle intellectual solitude and ambiguity.
· Display a commitment to learning and developing yourself. Leaders must invest in themselves. If you aren't educated, you can't help the uneducated; if you are sick, you can't minister to the sick; if you are poor, you can't help the poor.
· Develop the ability to put personal performance in perspective. Over a long career, you will experience both success and failure. Humility in success and courage in failure are hallmarks of a good leader.
· Be ready to invest in developing other people.
· Learn to relate to those who are less fortunate. Good leaders are always inclusive.
· Be concerned about due process. People seek fairness and not favors.
· Realize the importance of loyalty to an organization, profession, community, society and above all the family.
· Assume responsibility for outcomes as well as for the process and people you work with.
· Remember that you are part of a privileged few. That is your strength.
· Expect to be judged by what you do and how well you do it; not by what you say you want to do.
· Be conscious of the part you play. Be concerned about the poor and the disabled; accept human weakness, laugh at yourself and avoid the temptation to play GOD.
I really liked this and thought that it was worth expanding in our own lives. When you look at these 11 points, you begin to realize that it all has to do with the kind of people we are. We ought to be men and women of integrity, who place ourselves at a higher level than people may expect us to be at. A higher moral standard! Men and women of integrity!
It's interesting that yesterday we started the huge polling process. Assam and Tripura went to the polls and 815 million voters will vote over the next month. It is so important that we vote in people who have integrity. Recently I was asked the question on what advice I had for voting. I said, "We need to be able to find people who treat India as inclusive, as one and not divisive. Then be able to vote for people who have lived lives of integrity, where their word has been truth." That's what we need to look for. As an aside, I would say to each one of you on this call – Make sure that you vote. Remember, decisions are made by people who show up. If we abdicate that responsibility, then we really forfeit our right to criticize.
Integrity is so important for our lives as managers, as leaders in our office spaces. I love the way Ben Heineman, Jr. in his article "Avoiding Integrity Landmines". He quotes Jack Immelt, who succeeded Jack Welch as the CEO at GE. Immelt would always start their annual meeting of the 220 officers and 600 senior managers by restating the company's fundamental integrity principles. He would say, "GE's business success is built on our reputation with all stakeholders for lawful and ethical behavior. Commercial considerations never justify cutting corners. Upholding the standard is the specific responsibility of the leaders in the room." That was so clear for everybody. It said that it was non-negotiable at GE and fundamental to everything that we do.
Integrity is something that we all talk about and yet, so often we find that along the way, it has got pushed out by little things. I like the way three people have defined integrity for us. It comes out of a book called "The Executive Calling" by Roger Andersen. In that book, Andersen says, "It is important for a leader to have integrity and character, because leaders must set expectations in their organizations for integrity and create a culture where it is required and supported."
He goes on to quote 3 people. Jon M. Huntsman says, "The first and most important decision in one's success is carefully choosing the people who will surround you. Make sure they share your values; make certain their character defaults to higher moral ground in times of stress and ensure they are bright and comprehend results and be confident of their loyalty."
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway says, "I look for three things: the first is personal integrity; the second is intelligence and the third is a high energy level. If you don't have the first, the second two don't matter."
Albert Einstein says, "Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters."
I read these 3 quotes and thought that they were 3 wonderful nuggets about integrity embedded in those 3 quotes. Let me just mime them for you. The first one that Huntsman says, "Make sure the character of the people around you defaults to higher moral ground in times of stress." That's what we need – in difficult times and stressful circumstances, we need to default to a higher moral ground, not a lower one. Secondly, as Warren Buffett says, "If you don't have the first, which is personal integrity, intelligence and energy levels don't matter." Integrity is foundational to everything that we do. Then Albert Einstein says, "Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters." 3 wonderful little nuggets that I think are so important for us as we look at ourselves and the things that we do each and every day – to be able to go to a higher standard, to be able to have integrity first and foremost, and then to be very careful about the little things that we may do.
As we look at our lives and the people we work with, the culture that we have in the organization, the culture that we can create – we need to be able to say "I will stand for integrity." It is so important in our lives, in the companies that we work in, the leadership positions that we have, in the communities that we are part of and the families that we are from. Integrity must be foundational. How do we have it? It comes from our thinking. "As we think in our hearts, so are we," it says in our Scriptures.
But I came across another nugget in the Scriptures: "We look at the things we think about. Think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy." I believe if we do that, if we think about this – what I call and '8 point grip' that we allow every thought to come through. If we can filter them through these 8, I think we would be well on the way to be men and women of integrity. That's my prayer for myself and for each one of you dear people on this call.
May I pray with you? Almighty God. Bless us even as we seek to be men and women of integrity. Help us to go after those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. Help us to stand as men and women of integrity, to be able to shape that kind of culture and to be able to do and make decisions with integrity as the foundation. I pray that for each one on this call today, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
• Dr C K Prahalad, "The Responsible Manager." http://hbr.org/2010/01/column-the-responsible-manager/ar/pr
• Ben W. Heineman, Jr. "Avoiding Integrity Land Mines." http://hbr.org/2007/04/avoiding-integrity-land-mines/ar/pr
• Roger D. Andersen, "The Executive Calling." Creation House. Florida, 2008
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