Integrity at work – how is it displayed?

As the business sections of today’s newspapers and magazines read more and more like police blotting paper, ” Integrity ” is fast becoming a hot topic of conversation in business boardrooms, around water coolers and in today’s commercial best-sellers. Integrity is defined as preaching when it comes to living one’s true values, being authentic. Take this self-assessment and explore how you walk with your integrity speech when you show up for work.

Integrity is a lot like being pregnant. In other words, you are either pregnant or you are not. There is no middle ground. The same thing happens to me with integrity.

At work, integrity is not a robe that one can put on and take off when it is convenient. However, everyday behaviors in the workplace often seem to indicate that convenience plays an important role in whether or not people display integrity. Who the people are at work and how they do it seems to change like the weather, the climate of convenience.

When asked, many people say that they believe that, in fact, they always act with integrity. However, when we look at actual workplace behaviors day by day, minute by minute, this is clearly not the case. Why? One of the reasons is people’s basic needs for control, recognition, and security.

Because most people are driven by their egos and their needs for ego control, recognition, and security, they often stray away from their true and authentic self, their deepest inner values, and behave contrary to the rules. actions and behaviors. ing in integrity.

So, do you believe, feel and believe that you live your core values ​​at work, displayed with integrity in your workplace? Take this self-assessment and explore who you are and how you are working when it comes to integrity.

1. On an integrity scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high), how would you rate yourself on the following behaviors in the workplace?

(a) gossip;

(b) bullying;

(c) view or download pornography;

(d) theft of physical materials;

(e) theft of intellectual capital;

(f) steal time;

(g) tell the truth;

(h) assume responsibility for your part of your team’s projects;

(i) apologize;

(j) be direct, open and honest in your communications;

(k) respect others;

2. Who or what does our integrity normally take?

3. When you are of integrity, what kind of internal dialogue do you engage in?

4. Do your needs for control, recognition, and security take you out of integrity?

5. Do you lie to yourself about being of integrity? If so, why?

6. Does it matter to you that it is not complete?

7. Do you use the same definition to define integrity for yourself and for others? If not, why not?

8. Do you respond if others act with integrity and their actions affect you directly?

9. Do you respond if others act with integrity and their actions affect your team, your unit, your department or your organization?

10. Do you ever excuse or rationalize your lack of integrity? If so, when and why?

At the end of the day, the workday, integrity is about telling the truth about ourselves, to ourselves. It’s about living this truth.

Many of us are quick to judge and criticize others who act with integrity. But to tell the truth, and it comes down to the truth, many of us are equally prone to straying from our core values ​​and acting with integrity when it is convenient in some way.

So how did your self-assessment go? Who are you and what are you like when it comes to presenting yourself at work with integrity?

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