INTEGRITY: the often invisible cause of high staff turnover and stress

INTEGRITY: the often invisible cause of high staff turnover and stress

There was a woman in India who was upset that her son was eating too much sugar.

No matter how much she tried to pressure and persuade him, he continued to eat too much.

Fed up, she decided to take her son to see Gandhi. As you do.

She approached the great leader and said,

“Sir, my son eats too much sugar. Would you please advise him to stop eating it?”

Gandhi listened to the woman and then turned and spoke to her son,

“Go home and come back in two weeks.”

The woman looked perplexed but did as he ask and return two weeks later.

Gandhi motioned for them to come forward. He looked directly at the boy and said,

“Boy, you should stop eating sugar. It is not good for your health.”

The boy nodded and promised he would do so immediately.

The boy’s mother turned to Gandhi and asked, Why he didn’t tell him that two weeks ago.

Gandhi smiled,

“Two weeks ago I was still eating sugar myself.”

The same is true of leadership. Your ability to lead is ultimately the strength and measure of your integrity.

There is no room for being out of integrity -

That means there is no room for:

- “do as I say not as I do”,
- Expecting something you aren’t prepared to give
- Pretending to have knowledge, skills or insight that you don’t
- Judging others for failing to live up to standards that you don’t consistently live up to.
- Criticising or gossiping about someone not in the room
- Failing to do what you said you’d do
- Not defending someone not in the room when criticised

You can have all the leadership skills and tools in the world, without integrity your actions scream too loud for anyone to hear your words.

We all know this at a DEEP level, we knew it before we could talk. It is how we form trust as children. Before we understand language we understand integrity deep in the brain stem.

If you have integrity you can learn the rest.