Stick to principles you value and act with integrity. It'll pay off in the long run and even in the short term.
Honesty and integrity come into play in almost everything you do. Consider the value of trust. It's at the heart of all relationships, says Rob Chesnut, San Francisco-based retired general counsel and chief ethics officer at Airbnb and author of "Intentional Integrity." He points to the Edelman Trust Barometer that shows people view trust as twice as important as belief in someone's competence. It's vital to do the right thing.
"When you act with integrity, you build trust," he said. "And that fuels relationships."
Sometimes that's easier said than done.
"We're challenged every day to make decisions, and we're always tempted to do things that are in our self-interest," Chesnut said. "That may or may not be the right thing from an integrity perspective."
Stick To Principles By Thinking Ahead
Deal with those challenges by thinking in advance about your guiding principles, Chesnut says. Then it becomes easier to follow those values at crunchtime.
When Chesnut was a kid, one time he went to the grocery store with his mom and she went back in after they had left. She had been given too much change, so she returned it.
"How easy would it have been to keep going and rationalize it?" he said. "That was one of my most formative experiences growing up. It's thinking about these principles and making a decision in advance."
Remember you'll have to live with yourself if you do something dishonest, says John Brandt, chief executive of Cleveland-based global research firm MPI Group and author of "Nincompoopery."
"Being able to sleep at night is worth a lot," he said. However you treat honesty and integrity, it'll spread rapidly.
"A lack of integrity or honesty is so contagious," Brandt said. "If you create a culture where people feel like nobody cares about this, then they can justify just about anything. And that's not a healthy environment."
It works the other way, too. "If we're around people who talk about the importance of integrity and incorporate it into how they operate, that pushes us to step up our game, too," Chesnut said.
Brandt serves on boards and treats honesty as an imperative.
"I joke it's my job to be the skunk at a garden party," he said. "It's your job to ask hard questions. There are going to be moments in life when things are awkward and uncomfortable. But honesty and integrity are required."
Stick To Principles When Receiving Feedback
Be open to feedback. If you hear criticism, don't get defensive.
"Where feedback is valued and leaders are open to criticism, you're likely to see a culture of openness and honesty," Brandt said.
If you're facing a thorny situation that tempts you to take a dishonest route, envision how others would respond if they knew you were making that choice.
"Think of the person you admire most, and imagine telling them what you're about to do," Brandt said.
Set The Tone
If the leader implores everyone to hit a sales goal no matter what it takes, it practically begs for cutting corners.
"Leaders have the greatest influence on organizations when it comes to integrity," Brandt said.
A midlevel manager at Airbnb once noticed that Chesnut had left his computer screen on when he was away, a violation of the security policy. He told Chesnut so. Chesnut, who had been gone only about five minutes, initially thought the guy was nitpicking. But he thanked him. At the next company meeting, Chesnut awarded the manager a water bottle through the company's integrity program.
"When he left the company, he told me his proudest moment was getting that water bottle in front of everybody," Chesnut said. "A $30 water bottle can help change a culture and send a message about what sort of behavior is the right behavior."
