Lean Quote: Integrity is Doing the Right Things Even When No One is Looking

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking."   —  C.S. Lewis

Integrity gets lost…one degree of dishonesty at a time. There are no varying degrees of integrity. A leader is judged to have integrity or not based on what is seen. Minor lies can become a major problem. As minor as lies may seem, employees do not forget integrity mistakes.

There are 6 key ways a leader can earn employees trust:

1. Be honest and supportive. Even when it’s difficult, tell the truth and not just what you think people want to hear. Understand what employees need to know and communicate facts while being considerate of their effort and sensitive to their feelings. Showing support and understanding for your team members, even when mistakes are made. It goes a long way in building trust as a leader. 
2. Be transparent. Transparency opens the door for honest conversations, collaboration, and respect. It can help take some of the mystery and skepticism out of the workplace that leads to feelings of mistrust. Consistent and regular communications should be a priority for trustworthy leaders, and the communication is best when it’s timely, relevant, and focused on what employees need to know and why, so they have context.
3. Be consistent. Consistently doing what you say you’ll do builds trust over time – it can’t be something you do only occasionally. Keeping commitments must be the essence of your behavior, in all relationships, day after day and year after year. 
4. Model the behavior you seek. Nothing speaks more loudly about the culture of an organization than the leader’s behavior, which influences employee action and has the potential to drive their results. If you say teamwork is important, reinforce the point by collaborating across teams and functions. Give credit when people do great work and you’ll set the stage for an appreciative culture.
5. Build in accountability. When you and other leaders acknowledge your mistakes as well as successes, employees see you as credible and will follow your lead. You can encourage honest dialogue and foster accountability by building in processes that become parts of the culture, such as an evaluation of every project (positives, negatives, things to change) or a status report and next steps in each meeting agenda (tracking deadlines and milestones). 
6. Extend empathy to others. Leaders who pause and imagine how employees truly feel build a lot of trust. Show employees that you hear them and validate their feelings. The payoff is an employee who knows you care; at the same time, you gather information that’s useful to motivating that employee.

It all starts with integrity. Your employees will follow only if you have earned their trust!