What is Integrity?

Stephen M.R. Covey in his book, “The Speed of Trust” (which is an awesome book btw) offers up some questions to help you self-reflect on your current degree of integrity.

Grab a coffee and see how you measure up:

“#1
Do I genuinely try to be honest in all my interactions with others?

#2
Do I typically walk my talk?

#3
Am I clear on my values? Do I feel comfortable standing up for them?

#4
Am I open to the possibility of learning new truths that may cause me to rethink issues, or even redefine my values?

#5
Am I able to consistently make and keep commitments to myself?”

What did you discover?

When I did this exercise myself, I thought it would be a straight forward ‘tick box’ session (because I feel that I have consistent high levels of integrity)…

And yet each question still gave me pause to reflect.

#1: Am I genuinely honest all of the time? I would have to be honest and say that’s a 90% ‘yes’ and a 10% ‘bending the truth’, usually (in my mind) to protect the person I am speaking with.

#2: I definitely walk my talk. 100%.

#3: I am very clear on what I value and I make lots of effort to prioritise the most important ones. And yes I am clear on my boundaries with my values and have learned over the years to communicate them with greater ease.

#4: I am very open to learning new things and challenging my current perspectives so… yes – that’s a tick!

#5: Do I consistently keep the commitments I make to myself? On everything except for taking more time to rest, time out to just ‘be’ and to exercise. That is my learning there.