More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Started reading
August 9, 2019
“Now you need to know that when you take this job, I don’t do it anymore. It’s your job. It’s called a stewardship.
Stewardship means ‘a job with a trust.’
Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. —BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Trust is a function of two things: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive, your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. And both are vital.
simple definition of leadership: Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust. It’s maximizing both your current contribution and your ability to contribute in the future by establishing the trust that makes it possible.
Sir Ernest Shackleton put it: “Life to me is the greatest of all games. The danger lies in treating it as a trivial game, a game to be taken lightly, and a game in which the rules don’t matter much. The rules matter a great deal. The game has to be played fairly or it is no game at all. And even to win the game is not the chief end. The chief end is to win it honorably and splendidly.”
As my lawyer friends affirm, it basically boils down to these four issues: your integrity, your intent, your capabilities, and your results.
Your credibility—as an
expert witness, as a person, as a leader, as a family, as an organization—depend...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Given his track record, I’d be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Cardinal de Retz, “A man who doesn’t trust himself can never really trust anyone else.”
To many, “integrity” basically means “honesty.” While integrity includes honesty, it’s much more. It’s integratedness. It’s walking your talk. It’s being congruent, inside and out. It’s having the courage to act in accordance with your values and beliefs.
intent. This has to do with our motives, our agendas, and our resulting behavior. Trust grows when our motives are straightforward and based on mutual benefit—in other words, when we genuinely care not only for ourselves, but also for the people we interact with, lead, or serve.
capabilities. These are the abilities we have that inspire confidence—our talents, attitudes, skills, knowledge, and style. They are the means we use to produce results.
results. This refers to our track record, our performance, our getting the right things done.
Both capabilities and results are matters of competence.
4 Cores of Credibility is through the metaphor of a tree. Integrity is essentially below the surface. It is the root system out of which everything else grows. Intent becomes somewhat more visible. It is the trunk that emerges
from beneath the surface out into the open. Capabilities are the branches. They are the capacities that enable us to produce. Results are the fruits—the visible, tangible, measurable outcomes that are most easily seen and evaluated by others.
To me, integrity, the root word, really has to do with the whole man, with character, with completeness and goodness. I think of a man or woman of integrity as someone who is balanced and complete, with high character. A person of principle.
The compliance definition of “ethics” is not one of integrity or integratedness; it is a watered-down, devalued definition that essentially means “follow the rules.”
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. —ALBERT EINSTEIN
Congruence. “Integrity” comes from the same Latin root as the words “integrated” and “integer.” A person has integrity when there is no gap between intent and behavior . . .
People who are congruent act in harmony with their deepest values and beliefs.
My life is an indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another. . . . My life is my message. —MAHATMA GANDHI
Humility. Integrity also includes humility.
Collins said: We were surprised, shocked really, to discover the type of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy— these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar[emphasis
Being humble does not mean being weak, reticent, or self-effacing. It means recognizing principle and putting it ahead of self. It means standing firmly for principle, even in the face of opposition. Humble people can negotiate intensely.
Humble people also realize clearly that they do not stand alone, but rather on the shoulders of those who have gone before, and that they move upward only with the help of others.
Courage. Integrity also includes the courage to do the right thing—even when it’s hard.
Courage is the first of the human qualities because it is a quality which guarantees all the others. —WINSTON CHURCHILL
Be valued and principle based. Know what you stand for, and live by those standards. —GEORGE FISCHER, CHAIRMAN, EASTMAN KODAK
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest. —MAHATMA GANDHI
Who you are, what your values are, what you stand for . . . They are your anchor, your north star. You won’t find them in a book. You’ll find them in your soul. —ANNE MULCAHY, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, XEROX
Openness is vital to integrity. It takes both humility and courage—humility to acknowledge that there are principles out there you may not currently be aware of, and courage to follow them once you discover
them.
As illustrated in the tree metaphor, intent is represented by the trunk—partly unseen underground, partly visible above. While our motives and agendas are deep inside in our own hearts and minds, they become visible to others through our behaviors and as we share them with others.
Motive. Motive is your reason for doing something. It’s the “why” that motivates the “what.” The motive that inspires the greatest trust is genuine caring—caring about people, caring about purposes, caring about the quality of what you do, caring about society as a whole.
Agenda. Agenda grows out of motive. It’s what you intend to do or promote because of your motive. The agenda that generally inspires the greatest trust is seeking mutual benefit—genuinely wanting what’s best for everyone involved. It’s not just that you care about others; you also genuinely want them to win.
Behavior. Typically, behavior is the manifestation of motive and agenda. The behavior that best creates credibility and inspires trust is acting in the best interest of others. When we do so, we clearly demonstrate the intent of caring and the agenda of seeking mutual benefit.
HOW TO IMPROVE INTENT Fundamentally, intent is a matter of the heart. It’s something you can’t fake—at least not for long. But it is something you can definitely work on and improve.
The main reason why declaring intent increases trust is that it “signals your behavior”—it lets people know what to look for so that they can recognize, understand, and acknowledge it when they see it.
The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away. —DR. WAYNE DYER, AUTHOR, THE POWER OF INTENTION
Abundance is a mind-set, a way of being and becoming. It is also a foundational element of improving intent, which will make us more credible—believable—with others.
Capable people are credible. They inspire trust.
I have to go to work. or I’m genuinely excited to go to work, where I can use my talents and skills to contribute and add value. I work like crazy and live for the weekends. I can hardly wait until I can retire and do what I want to do. or I have a balanced life in which work, recreation, and rich relationships are all important parts. I expect to have this kind of balance throughout my life.
