Many people know what integrity means; yes, Integrity in leadership means having strong moral principles, standing by your words, and doing the right thing.
It’s a highly valued trait since most employees look to their leader for cues on how to act. A leader that demonstrates the company values in their actions helps set expectations for acceptable behaviour.
We may have different ideas about what it means to be a person of integrity. This will be based on our own spiritual and moral standards which can vary depending on our culture and upbringing.
In Christianity, integrity, however, well spelt out in the Scripture. When we look at Bible verses about integrity, we begin to see how important it is to God and foundational to our faith. In our country, here, when we talk about integrity, people take it in their own wrong perception; perception where people begin to expose their richest part as strength of downplaying the laymen, use their powers to manipulate interest, disunite vulnerable people, cause chaos and forget to do right things in their communities.
I witnessed this over the past decade, where some people holding big positions in government happen to be the root cause of the problem in their communities, they stand with youth who are committing atrocities.
Many of our people haven’t had time to think that the same communities they are proud of are the reason as to why they get into positions they are now holding in government, for one reason or another, we see them talking things that fuel up problems and they pretend to be doing it so diplomatically not knowing they are destroying themselves and their communities.
Nothing is gotten from causing conflict amongst vulnerable people but losses where women, children and elderly people die for no reason. If we continue to destroy our communities in no time, we’ll never have place to rest and meditate, simply because there are no people with whom we shall sit and discuss the way forward.
More importantly, integrity in my own understanding starting from family level as father or mother, one has to be very vigilant in whatever decision he/she might take before it reaches the family members. When they have problem between themselves, they shouldn’t let it be known by little children simply because this would create negative impression on them, later would imitate it to be part of their life between their boys and girls. When spouse fight in the eyes of their children, the turn would be between the daughter and the sons.
Teach your children with love, responsibility, slow to anger and seriousness in decision making process.
Much like integrity in other types of relationships, integrity in personal relationships is characterized by treating others with fairness and acting in a consistent manner. Personal relationships of high integrity have honesty, fidelity, and equity. Integrity in personal relationships relies on each person’s own integrity. A person has integrity when they stringently and consistently adhere to their own set of values. The benefits of having personal integrity and maintaining integrity in relationships are that it demonstrates one’s strength of character and motivates others to trust that individual.
Moreover, integrity is founded on mutually agreed societal concepts, it is a social construct by virtue. Integrity is a dynamic concept whose meaning changes periodically and contextually due to implicit and explicit philosophical convictions. Despite scholars’ and philosophers’ efforts to propagate a definite integrity code, there continue to be discussions and conflicts about what is right or wrong and in what situations. It isn’t easy to define the integrity criteria since it is rooted in morality and honesty, which are subjective concepts.
Integrity is the quality of having strong moral principles that one uncompromisingly adheres to. Integrity can be defined as doing the right thing all the time and adhering to a code of ethical and moral principles. People who conduct themselves with a great deal of honesty and abstain from deception are said to have integrity.
The characteristics of integrity include honesty, responsibility, grace, respect, accountability, hard work, patience, and any other action that describes being honest. Honesty and integrity go hand in hand. One who fails to conform to the moral and ethical code of integrity can be considered wicked. Some traits which are the opposite of integrity are dishonesty, irresponsibility, cheating, disrespect, etc. In every aspect of life, personal or professional, integrity is important. Moral integrity helps people do the right thing even in situations where that may be difficult.
Finally, seeing this for quite number of years from those whom we believed to have had great integrity, they truly sacrificed for the nation not their families, had slept in mosquitoes filled bushes and succumbed bullets yet never given up in long endurance and convictions. They did this for every citizen to live a life which is free from intimidation, harassment, suffering from both social, political and economic factors. Be that kind of a leader that prioritize security and development. We won’t accept suffering of our own people anymore. “Public Staunchest Ally”
The writer of this article is a human rights activist, writer, and professional teacher.