Honor. That is a word you do
not hear much these days. Years ago, a person’s honor or personal integrity
meant everything to them. History is full of brave men and women who valued
their honor above all else . . . even their own lives. Sadly, we live in a
world that has become so cynical that people mock or are at least suspicious of
the individual that strives to live honorably. I was recently thinking out loud
that the good news is that your personal sense of honor can never be taken
away, but the bad news is that you can relinquish it!
Allow me to explain further. I
believe that the leader who has intentionally developed the habits and made the
tough choices to become an honorable person, will keep that part of themselves
forever. It does not mean that they are perfect, it just means that they
continually live their lives and make decisions based upon what is honorable.
Even when they make a mistake, they do the honorable
thing by admitting their error and make whatever corrections are needed. The ONLY
way, then, that you can lose your honor is if you let it go or relinquish it.
You see to stay a leader of
integrity, we cannot take our sense of honor for granted. For honor to remain
it must be maintained or it will dissipate. We see this time and time
again. The leader in business, government, education, etc. that starts out
their career with so much promise, so much potential, somehow loses their way
and make career ending errors. Worse yet, instead of owning up to their
actions, they rationalize or attempt to cover up their poor decisions.
For Honor to Remain, it must be Maintained!
So
how can we maintain our honor? Jim Loehr, peak performance expert and author of
the great book, The Only Way to Win,
emphasizes that to Improve in this area of our leadership, we need to build our
“Character Muscles”. This requires us to confront our Character Weakness and confront
our Character Imbalances (e.g. we emphasize winning over integrity). Even in
our quest to achieve success we can still build and strengthen our sense of
honor. When we do relinquish our honor, it is because we have not focused on
building the habits, attitudes, and life choices that build our capacity to
live and lead with an ever-growing sense of personal honor. According to Dr.
Loehr, we have to work on this EVERYDAY. Collapses of honor often come one inch
or one small compromise at a time.
I
agree that of all the things we can educate on, the most important form of
training for leaders is in the honor spectrum. It is FOUNDATIONAL to
everything else. If our sense of honor is weak or easily relinquished then our
enterprise will eventually fail. We have seen this time and time again.
So,
as always, I have a few questions for you to reflect on:
- What does being an honorable leader and person mean to you?
- What behaviors, attitudes, and words distinguish between those that hold their honor and those that do not?
- What do you do well and what can you improve upon in terms of this aspect of your leadership and life?
- What expectations do you have for others in terms of their sense of honor?
- Who are you or can you influence through your sense of leadership?
In
the words of journalist Walter Lipmann, “A man has honor if he holds himself to
an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do
so”. Carrying yourself with a sense of honor is by no means easy but it far
outweighs the alternative!
As always if I can help you and the
people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would
invite you to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the
training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! In fact, I am
launching a new SPEAK FOR IMPACT
training program that will help both novice and experienced leaders find their platform and increase
their communication skills! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies
website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE
guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such
an initiative would be critical to add value to your organization!
Yours in Leadership,
Bill Faulkner
Principal Consultant –
Out Loud Strategies
Independent Coach,
Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team TM
Email = bill@outloudinc.com
For more information on
the John Maxwell Team, please visit
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