PREFACE

The essential purpose of this book is to provide a foundation of key ideas through focusing on Leadership and Personal qualities, attributes, and behaviors that honor not only our work but our life. It is my firm belief that true leaders work to serve their fellow employees, their team, their company, their customers, as well as their families and friends.

What makes this book different?
I believe that my unique value as an author is that I can bring a wide body of ideas together and condense them into a fundamental, down-to-earth, easily accessible form. In preparing for writing about Leadership and Change I gathered a cross-section of materials from the ‘Change’ literature and the ‘Leadership/Business Change’ literature. Thus this is a meta-study of the different types of leadership materials available, aimed at bringing a wide range of ideas together.
Choices
“What qualities, what values, what ideas make a leader great?
“The value and qualities that are closest to that person’s heart, as well as the personal dedication and power to bring those to the fore when working with people.”
I have selected terms that have been important to me through my experiences in my work and in my life and terms that have been highlighted by other authors that I feel are of major significance.
Our goal is to provide you with thought-provoking material that will help you become a stronger and more capable, kinder leader for your team and organization. We hope it will also help you enjoy your work and life to the utmost.
Sincerely,
Joe Koob

1. Integrity

Synonyms: uprightness; honor; moral soundness; sincerity; reliable
Antonyms: dishonor; disgrace; unreliable; dishonest

When we think of integrity we can conjure up a wide variety of concepts and images that help us to narrow the field. However, actually putting our finger on what defines the quality of integrity is difficult. We might easily identify a person who we admire by saying, “She has integrity,” but what do we really mean?
Integrity is a feeling, a quality, more than a definable fact. I believe that as leaders we need to consider some very important perspectives relevant to this quality:
How we perceive ourselves – do we truly feel we are ‘in integrity?’ (Perkins)
How do we come across to others – do they feel we are ‘in integrity’ in our dealings, interactions, and work with them?
How do we perceive integrity in others – do we respect this quality in the people we come in contact with throughout our day?
Each of these perspectives is critical to who we are as a leader.

Are you ‘In Integrity’ (Betty Perkins, Lion Taming)

I believe we all want to be honorable people. Even when life is difficult and we have tough choices to make, most of us wish to maintain a high-quality image of who we are and what we are about. Taking the time to consider this in some depth is an excellent exercise, particularly if we are dealing with difficulties at work, with employees, with on-going change, and with tough decisions. (See Appendix II for a Scale designed to help highlight Values and Qualities you admire.)
Once you have a firm foundation in what integrity and quality means to you, the real challenge is applying this to every moment of your life. Every interaction we have with others presents us with the opportunity to be ‘in integrity’ or to choose something else.
How do others see us?
I truly believe that if we personally have integrity that we will honor others. However, the wise leader always considers how her/his actions and words are perceived by others. Sometimes we have to make allowances for others’ perceptions even though we feel we are being completely honorable in our relations with them.
Taking the opportunity to consider our personal impact on others can be a tremendous learning tool. It also shows a great deal of understanding and caring to your fellow employees in the work place. They will more than likely sincerely appreciate your efforts and will understand more fully who you are and what you are all about. It is important to talk about what you believe in and what is important to you. People like to be informed and the more you make an effort to express your values through what you do AND what you say, the more others’ will see you as the person you truly want to be.
Tell them specifically what you value and they will understand far better what integrity means to you.
Don’t expect team members to just ‘get it,’ through your actions. Actions certainly say a great deal, but the learning curve can be very long, and difficult, especially in today’s constantly changing business environment. Telling them what is important to you, coupled with your actions, gets them on board much faster.
Respecting integrity in others
This is all about showing your team what IS most important to you, by recognizing, verbalizing, and rewarding the behaviors and qualities you wish them to have. [And by not rewarding or recognizing those behaviors that are inappropriate.]
What we pay attention to happens!
Too often we spend a great deal of time paying attention to things that aren’t going right. For example, a common quality of difficult people is that they seek attention by whatever means has worked for them in the past. If their actions beget attention, they are succeeding at getting what they want, even if the attention they are getting is based on their negative actions.
Pay attention to the great qualities of the members of your team every day (EVERY DAY!) And you will reinforce the values you and they need to succeed.
Integrity is all about...
Integrity is all about every other term in this book. It leads the list because it is the most important term in leadership. Leaders who are not ‘in integrity’ may have power, may ‘get things done’ through coercion and other negative means, and may feel important, but they are not respected.
What is most important to you?

“...there is no such thing as a minor lapse in integrity.”
(Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos)