Pilgrimage

Integrity in Deed

The following series was written as a paper for SBTS on my personal leadership philosophy.

A third component that is necessary for a holistic philosophy of leadership is integrity in deed. As with the other elements of my leadership philosophy, submission to God and humility of heart, integrity in deed challenges one to congruence in the personal and professional spheres of life. “Ordinary discourse about integrity involves two fundamental intuitions: First, that integrity is primarily a formal relation one has to oneself, or between parts or aspects of one’s self; and second, that integrity is connected in an important way to acting morally, in other words, there are some substantive or normative constraints on what it is to act with integrity” (Cox, La Caze and Levine 2005). Christian leadership requires personal integrity to be judged by the scriptures. A professional minister’s integrity is rightly judged by his or her adherence to the biblical precepts.

In the Old Testament, God appeared to Solomon to instruct him to maintain “integrity of heart.” God states:
As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel’” (I Kings 9: 4-5).

While David did not always act perfect in response to the mandates of God, he was open and repentant about his failures. He also sought to please the Lord throughout his reign over Israel. Men and women of integrity are responsible to seek and do the will of God. In doing so, personal relationships are valued and God is glorified. God understood that David’s desire to walk in integrity had a direct correlation to David’s love for Him. Knowing this, God blessed David’s lineage. Proverbs 20:7 speaks of blessing to one’s posterity when one walks in integrity: “A righteous man who walks in his integrity; how blessed are his sons after him.” Leaders must be concerned for long-term organizational and ministerial success, even beyond one’s tenure in leadership.

In the New Testament, Jesus sought to capture the essence of integrity in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ teachings on moral living, marriage, prayer, and fasting call believers to bring harmony between their thought-life and personal deeds. Regarding adultery He states, “You have heard that is was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27-28). Jesus knew the seedbed of sin is in one’s thoughts. Sanctified thoughts begin to yield sanctified actions. Jesus’ intent was to help those he taught understand that integrity is essential to the community of faith and must be consistently resident in the life of believers.

In secular literature, Jim Collins found that many CEO’s lacked the integrity needed to secure their company’s future success. He states, “…concerned more with their own reputation for personal greatness, [these leaders] often failed to set the company up for success in the next generation. After all, what better testament to your own personal greatness than that the place falls apart after you leave?” (Collins 2001, 26). These leaders were so concerned about their own well-being and public standing that they were willing to risk their personal integrity in order to maintain a positive public persona. Collins goes further, “In over three quarters of the comparison companies, we found executives who set their successors up for failure or chose weak successors, or both” (26). Leaders with a high level of integrity provided a consistent frame of reference for employees, constituents, and family members.
Kouses and Posner found that character, honesty, and integrity are essential qualities in leadership.

They state:
It’s clear that if people anywhere are to willingly follow someone—whether it be into battle or into the boardroom, the front office or the front lines—they first want to know that the person is truthful, ethical, and principled. When people talk to us about qualities they admire in leaders, they often use “integrity” and “character” as synonymous with honesty. No matter what the setting, everyone wants to be fully confident in their leaders, and to be fully confident they have to believe that their leaders are people of strong character and solid integrity (27).

Integrity in word and deed provides a consistent compass that guides leaders in difficult times. “There is an ethical dimension to leadership that neither leaders nor constituents should take lightly” (393).

Integrity also attracts the best people to an organization. Aspiring leaders want to learn from the best. They desire to discover principles from people who strive for harmony in their public and private lives. Collins suggests that some of the “best and brightest” in the business world look for opportunities to work with individuals who seek to take organizations from “good to great.” He indicates that since these people joined an organization because of the leadership’s character and integrity, they are much more willing to work through organizational change. “The right people don’t need to be tightly managed or fired up; they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great” (42). The agility provided to an organization through employees who are accepting of change allows it to meet societal and economic transitions rapidly. Leadership sets the tone for this paradigm through concern for personal character and integrity.
Conclusions

These three components of my leadership philosophy are practically applied in the manner in which I relate to God and others. Submission to Christ, humility of heart, and integrity in deed are a means for God’s grace to be manifest in my life. It is through these virtues that God is glorified and His kingdom is advanced. The times when these virtues have been least present in my life are times when God has not been a priority. These components of Christian leadership are not something that I can learn on my own or achieve through a traditional didactic approach. Submission, humility, and integrity are qualities that can only be manifested in their purest form through diligent, consistent relationship with Christ.