New Tips And Triks For You

Earlier this week I had the rather odd experience of learning that my writing had been plagiarised by a school principal. While I must admit to feeling a bit flattered that an educator - whose grammar is likely far superior to my own - found my words worth copying as her own, I also found myself wishing that she had taken time to read the chapter in my book Stop Playing Safe about the importance of building our career, and life, on a solid foundation of integrity. Had she heeded it's advice, it would have spared her enormous damage to her career and reputation, as well as many years of hard work ahead to rebuild it, if she ever can.

Of course it might seem particularly ironic for an educator (and an award winning one at that) to commit such a crime. No doubt she often lectured her students on the importance of honesty and character, and the wrongs of deception and fraud. Yet, as much as we may like to righteously condemn her for doing something that violated her own principles so squarely, it should also serve as a reminder about how easy it can be to cross the line between right and wrong, and act in ways that we know aren't right and would dread others to know about.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong's catastrophic fall from grace over illegal doping provided a very public example of someone whose desire for admiration and applause won over his commitment to a clear conscience. While only he knows the real truth of his descent into deception, it's my guess that it wasn't swift, but occurred over many years with a thousand small surrenders of self-respect for self-interest. Over time, every choice he confronted became so muddied by all that had preceded that he lost all sense of north and south, right and wrong, and veered so far off course he could no longer find his way back. (Though I understand from his conversation with Oprah that his public dethroning was the catalyst he needed to rediscover his moral compass. I wish him well.)

Athletes, educators, corporate heavyweights, religious ministers - none of us are immune to such temptation, and all of us must remain vigilant in our own lives about whether we are stepping into a slippery grey zone that is often hard to retreat from. Integrity doesn't come in shades of grey. Living and leading with integrity means that we must tune into our conscience to guide our decisions, and refuse to compromise on what we know is right regardless of how inconvenient, costly or politically inexpedient it may be. That doesn't mean we don't work to find mutually agreeable solutions with those around us, it just means we don't sell out to our principles for the sake of our ego, our status, or bank account.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "One man cannot do right in one department of life while he is occupied doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole. Likewise, W. Edwards Deming-the guru of process integrity who revolutionised manufacturing in the Japanese automobile industry in the 1950's-taught that it's no good doing all of the right things some of the time, or some of the right things all of the time. Excellence in process integrity means doing all of the right things all of the time. Or as

As we work hard to meet and exceed expectations in our organisation and deliver the results we know others want, it's all too easy to justify a little shortcut here and a little white lie there. 'No big deal,' we tell ourselves, but over time those shortcuts and little white lies can become our default. Indeed, as you climb in your career, the pressure to perform becomes greater, the line between black and white grows blurrier, opportunities to deceive become more numerous, and the temptation to cover up more alluring. The stakes grow larger and the fall gets harder. Certainly, power can put even the most ardent truth-teller to the test. But character is much easier kept than recovered; a good reputation lost is often lost forever. Which is why it is so important to commit to doing the daily work of ensuring that you never compromise yours.

While you may think of yourself as a person of good character who lives honestly and speaks truthfully, I invite you to think more deeply about how you go about both your work and your life. Character isn't just about being honest. It involves having integrity in everything you do, from following through on your seemingly unimportant promise to following up, to not committing to something you know you just won't have the resources to fulfil, to going out of your way to let someone know you appreciate the effort they're putting in or to apologise when you've messed up, however inconsequential your mistake may have been.

Living with integrity and character is akin to weeding a garden. You know that weeding it is good for it, but you don't always see the results of your effort. It's only when you fail to dig out the weeds that they eventually take over. Your garden can become so overgrown with weeds that no flowers can blossom.

Your career, your business, your relationships and your life are no different. You have to intentionally put aside time to tend to those patterns of thought and behaviour that can, left unchecked, cause us to act in ways that may lack integrity-however seemingly insignificant-and slowly, gradually, disconnect us from some of the core principles that, if you stopped still long enough to think about, you want to build your life upon. We can only blossom in life when we are planted firmly in integrity, committed to making time to weed out those behaviours and beliefs that can compromise it.

In Stop Playing Safe I shared the four core domains of character - Competence, Sincerity, Reliability and Compassion. All four domains are built on the common foundation of integrity. They are bound to each other, working together in concert, each supporting the other, each reinforcing the other, and each magnifying the perception of the other, for better or worse. When any of them becomes weakened or cracked, they are all compromised. Staying focused on acting with integrity within each domain will build both the confidence you have in yourself, and the confidence others have in you.

While much of my work as a writer, speaker, commentator, and coach is encouraging people to think bigger, and to take risks, the one think we should never put at risk is our conscience. I therefore wish the woman who inspired me to write this column courage, resilience and a profoundly valuable lesson for her personal growth as she faces the steep cost that straying off the path of integrity can exact.

Margie Warrell draws on her background in Fortune 500 business, psychology, and executive coaching to help people live and lead with greater courage. The bestselling author of Stop Playing Safe (Wiley 2013), and Find Your Courage (McGraw-Hill 2009), she is also the Founder of Global Courage, a sought after keynote speaker and the mother of four noisy children.

Connect with Margie on Twitter, Linked In, You Tube, or join her Courage Community on Facebook, For more 'courage-building' resources or and information, please visit www.margiewarrell.com