فصل هشتم بخش اول

Chapter 8

THE VOICE OF TRUSTWORTHINESS—MODELING CHARACTER AND COMPETENCE

Dwight David Eisenhower once said

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.

Some time ago I was asked to consult for a bank that was having a problem with employee morale. “I don’t know what’s wrong,” bemoaned their young president. Bright and charismatic, he’d risen through the ranks only to see his institution faltering. Productivity and profits were down. He blamed his employees. “No matter what incentives I provide,” he said, “they won’t shake off this gloom and doom.” He was right. The atmosphere seemed poisoned with suspicion and lack of trust. For two months I ran workshops, but nothing helped. I was stumped.

“How can anyone trust what’s happening here?” was a typical employee refrain. But no one would tell me the source of the distrust.

Finally, in more casual conversations, the truth emerged. The boss, who was married, was having an affair with an employee. And everyone knew it.

It was obvious now that the company’s poor performance was caused by his conduct. But the greatest damage this man was doing was to himself. He was thinking only of his own gratification, disregarding long-term consequences. Moreover, he had violated a sacred trust with his wife.

In a word, his failing was one of character.

90 percent of all leadership failures are character failures.

Just as trust is the key to all relationships, so also is trust the glue of organizations. It is the cement that holds the bricks together. I have also learned that trust is the fruit of the trustworthiness of both people and organizations. Trust comes from three sources: the personal, the institutional, and one person consciously choosing to give it to another—an act that leads me to feel your belief that I can add value. You give me trust and I return it. Trust is a verb AND a noun. When it’s both a verb and a noun, it’s something shared and reciprocated between people. That is the essence of how a person becomes the leader of their boss. They merit trust by giving it. Trust the verb comes from the potential trustworthiness of the one receiving the trust and the clear trustworthiness of the one giving the trust. The fourth role—Empowering—embodies making trust a verb.

We’ve surveyed over 54,000 people and asked them to identify the essential qualities of a leader; integrity was, by far, the number one response (see figure 8.2).

In many settings today it is out of vogue to speak in terms of character. It’s become equated with soft, touchy-feely stuff or with someone’s religion. Some people wonder if our inner values matter anymore. After all, hasn’t our noted bank executive succeeded in every visible way, despite his transgressions?

This question demonstrates a quandary of our modern life. Many have come to believe that the only things we need for success are talent, energy and personality. But history has taught us that over the long haul, who we are is more important than who we appear to be.

As I did a review of leadership and success literature going back to the founding of the United States, in preparation for writing The 7 Habits, I found that during the first 150 years, the focus was almost exclusively on the importance of character and principles. As we moved into the Industrial Age and after World War I, the focus began to shift to personality, techniques, and technologies—what we could call the Personality Ethic.

This trend is continuing, but I sense a countertrend emerging as people experience the fruits of valueless organizational culture. More and more organizations are recognizing the need for trustworthiness, for character, for producing trust in the culture. More and more people are seeing the need to look deeply into their own souls, to sense how they, themselves, contribute to the problems, and to figure out exactly what they can do to contribute to the solution and serve human needs.

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.1 THEODORE ROOSEVELT

What became of the bank president who was intimately involved with an employee? When I confided to him what I knew of his affair and the effect it was having on his staff, he ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know where to begin,” he said.

“Is it over?” I asked.

He looked me squarely in the eye. “Yes. Absolutely.”

“Then begin by talking with your wife,” I answered.

He told his wife, who forgave him. Then he called a meeting of his staff and addressed their morale problem. “I have found the cause of the problem,” he said. “It is me. I am asking you to give me another chance.” It took time, but eventually employee morale—a sense of openness, optimism and trust—improved. In the end, however, the executive was doing himself the greatest favor. He was finding his own path to character.

PERSONAL TRUSTWORTHINESS

Wherever you find lasting trust, you will find trustworthiness. It is always so. It is a principle. Just as trust comes from trustworthiness, trustworthiness comes from character and competence. When you develop both strong character and competence, the fruit is wisdom and judgment—the foundation of all great and lasting achievement and trust. The following diagram (see figure 8.3) helps to identify the main factors dealing with the production of trust.

Let’s begin with the three facets of personal character: integrity, maturity and the Abundance Mentality.

Integrity means that you are integrated around principles and natural laws that ultimately govern the consequences of our behavior. Honesty is the principle of telling the truth. Integrity is keeping promises made to self and/or others.

GANDHI said: a man cannot do right in one department of life while he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.

Maturity develops when a person pays the price of integrity and winning the private victory over self, allowing him or her to be simultaneously courageous and kind. In other words, such a person can deal with tough issues compassionately. The combination of courage and kindness is both the source and the product of integrity.