“What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Today I am reading an advertisement in the newspaper about a home management system, available at Lowe’s, that works using your smart phone. It provides home security and a lot more. You can use the system to lock or unlock doors, control temperature settings and record and watch video when an alarm is tripped. It is truly amazing what a person can do with a smart phone in today’s world.
I turn on the news and listen to an alert about a missing plane. It is hard to believe in our current world of technology that something as big as a plane could disappear. But, I can lock my front door from 100 miles away at the beach. That is an interesting contrast.
In today’s world, not much is considered secret from the technological eyes and ears of our environment. Even if we are not on Facebook and do not engage in social media, we are still exposed. Our friends and family are very involved, and we are out there even if we do not want to be. If we want to have a secret life, we are living in the wrong age. It is no longer possible.
So, what are the options? My answer to all of this is based on old-fashioned principles – what many of us may have learned from our grandparents, ‘while sipping lemonade on the porch.’ Many of these conversations centered on how to live our life based on timeless principles.
Integrity – is my simple answer to all of this wide-open exposure. Integrity is what propels you to do what you do when no one is watching. Your real motivation for doing things in life, what you really believe and think, is the real you. Integrity is connecting our actions and words to the real person that we are. It is far more than honesty, which seems to be an issue today with many of the public figures we see and hear. Integrity is being true to yourself.
Is it my imagination? Sometimes, I sense that I am being told something just to make me feel better, even though it is not the truth. Does this ever happen to you? If many of the important decisions I make in my life are based on what I am told, then what I am told becomes essential. My decisions will be largely influenced by the facts that exist. In some situations, life could be at stake if the wrong information is communicated. Even if physical life is not at stake, our minds are always impacted.
At Hackbarth Delivery Service, the company my wife and I founded, we have a Values Vision Mission Statement. The central value of the five listed principles of our company is integrity. It states: “We tell the truth, we honor our commitments and do what is right. “
Imagine a world where that statement would be honored and followed! That one sentence is loaded with depth. We tell the truth. Honesty matters and in our company, a supervisor could lose his job if he lied to anyone, including team members, vendors and customers. This creates an environment where our team knows they will be told the truth by any other employee. That is huge as many companies would not take such a value so seriously. For us, ‘white lies’ are not acceptable and likely will result in termination.
We honor our commitments – this goes far above honesty. Failure in a service promise might not be an act of dishonesty, but, it goes to commitment and that does take integrity to a deeper level. We are saying that we should be serious about our commitments. Everyone in marketing says that they will do a ‘great job,’ and the customer wants to hear that. In our company, we are saying that a service promise is a commitment, which goes to integrity. We strive to be the company that we say we are. Integrity – a step beyond just honesty.
The final phrase of that powerful sentence is, “we do what is right,” which adds a moral dimension to our values. No mention is made of what is actually right. But, we believe that most people know what the right thing to do is. Just follow the golden rule: Treat others like you want to be treated. Another good way to view this is, think about the other party as being a friend or member of your family. How would you want that person to be treated?
Lou Holtz, one of the great football coaches of this era, has consistently made a common statement to his football players over the years. He would say: “If it is not something that you would want to see on the front page of the newspaper, then it might not be the right thing to do.” Adopting a simple approach with his players, he told them simply not to do what they already knew was wrong behavior. There are many people who have great potential and huge opportunities, but refuse to do what is right.
The world is full of technology. Many of us will choose to secure our home with these new powerful phone apps and security systems. Even if we choose not to embrace the openness of our new world, we will be exposed in some manner. We will probably not be able to control everything that others find out about us.
All of us will have private thoughts that enter our minds that we would not want to share. Life is full of temptations. Do not expect me to reveal everything that has entered my head this week. But, being aware of the thoughts that occupy the most time, the ones that I dwell on often during the day probably merit our attention. Are those thoughts, the main ones, in sync with our public lives? Are they consistent with who we are? Probably, our answer is a mixture of ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ I believe that most folks will have some disconnect here. We are human. Does it make sense to you that finding a greater harmony between what you think and what you do is a path to a more peaceful and joyful life? I think our grandmothers would agree.
Integrity is a deep and vital subject. How deep do you want to go?
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