Integrity - Living Out What is Important to You

‍Integrity: A Fractal Virtue

Integrity is fractal. It is self-similar because it is the same whether the smallest promise or the greatest cause. Integrity is equally important when we keep our word to ourselves, strive to work as part of a team, or honor our commitment to serve something far greater than ourselves.

Lessons from Ted Olson: Integrity in Action

The idea of doing a blog on integrity took root while reading a recent article about the passing of Ted Olson, a towering figure in the legal profession during the past twenty-five years. He argued sixty-five times before the United States Supreme Court, winning far more often than he lost. He was a longtime supporter of the conservative Federalist Society AND he fought to legalize gay marriage. 

He was immune to passing political fads. Ted Olson passionately believed in free speech, equal rights, and the Constitution. His friend and sometime legal opponent David Boies (himself a great legal mind) said of Olson “he was a person of absolute integrity, absolute commitment to principle.” In another interview, Boies said, “He was never an ideologue.” The article concludes with a description of Ted Olson as a person who tried to think the way the other side thinks or tried to express what the other side is expressing. His was a life of integrity in service to great ideas.

Leadership and Responsibility: Integrity in Small Moments

Integrity is also about a leader's responsibility to people. One of the Severn Leadership Group Program Managers shares a story about being sharply rebuked for being late to play cards with his co-workers during lunch. While seemingly a small thing, it forced him to confront the fact that his actions and words were not aligned. As members of teams, groups, and our communities, actions speak far louder than our words.

Early in my career, I was told that a leader should remember that the people they lead are always watching them. The value of this advice was quickly evident. They were watching so if I said it, I did it. To be honest, in the beginning, I was scared not to. Slowly, I also came to see that it was the right thing to do and that it mattered and it made a difference.

At the most granular level, integrity is about keeping your word to the person that you look at in the mirror. It is about not lying to yourself. Often this is the hardest part of integrity. It can be too easy to fool ourselves or rationalize bad choices. In “The Brothers Karamazov” Dostoevsky writes:

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.

At all levels, integrity is about living out what is important to you. It is about properly orienting the thousands of choices we make every day – from the life-changing to the mundane. It is about consistently aligning our lives to do the right thing and thus maintaining our ability to love. Through your actions people will see what is important to you – no matter what you might say.

A closing thought from The Virtue Proposition (page 70):

‍“An even older example is found in Meditations, the writings of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher and ruler of Rome. There he put it succinctly: “A man should be upright, not kept upright.” As a leader are you a purveyor of light or a dispenser of darkness? Are you salt that has lost all its taste? There is probably no greater basis for authenticity in your leadership than whether you walk the walk with consistency and integrity.”

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Sheldon is a Severn Leadership board member and has been a mentor since 2022. His career was primarily in corporate supply chain leadership and related consulting. Sheldon has a BS in Finance from Lehigh University and an MBA in International Business from Emory University. 

He and his wife Janet, after a lifetime of corporate moves, live in Fort Myers and thrive on service, travelling and the joy of nine grandchildren.

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