Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.
In our last segment we talked about focusing on the process to achieve your desired outcome. There is additional value by which you can evaluate your own actions.
In evaluating success, an additional standard is looking at the alignment between your behavior and your values. This is known as a measure of integrity, or success beyond success.
In his book Conscious Business author Fred Kofman lays out an impressive idea that integrity is not a particular value, akin to honesty, but rather integrity is adherence to a code of values. Ask yourself the following question: Are you willing to win at any cost? Before you answer yes, consider another question. What if winning requires unethical behavior? Does this cause a pause? Enron, Tyco, WorldCom all had impressive codes of ethics. But that code of ethics didn’t prevent their executives from acting unethically.
Most executives know the difference between right and wrong and we know where the dividing line is located. In the heat of the moment do you put integrity first and subordinate success or uphold success at all costs and put integrity second?
Every time we act, we are either in alignment with our values or we are not. We choose whether or not we are aligned. When it comes to integrity, we can always be players.
