Leadership! I thought it was an office that helps someone develop integrity for themselves; I never knew I was thinking wrong; maybe that man who opens the door of leadership and finds a seat for himself will be that man of integrity who will be trustworthy and reliable in all his ways: that was also a wrong assumption. What if that person believes he has integrity but has not yet developed and continues to pray all the time that integrity should be the first sight he would see at the entering of his
leadership office, would that be considered an answered prayer?
Though I don’t have the power and resources to answer prayers, I would rather consider that a mere waste of time and ignorance & I would rather say NO! At the detriment of my life to say Yes, to gain 100 million dollars that will hurt people’s lives: that is the voice of a man of integrity. Though it’s easy to say, but once it is built in you, it consistently becomes a life you live every day. You’re troubled and disorganized
when you live a minute outside the room of integrity.
What is integrity? The Quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Now, examining the definition of integrity, I see that there’s a word that attracts me: Quality. Taking a step further to clarify
the word Quality, it is the standard of something as measured against other things of similar kind; the degree of excellence in something. summing up to redefine integrity, I will put it this way: integrity
is the standard of honesty and having strong moral principles as measured against other people. Integrity is not appreciated or valued until you’ve fallen victim of corruption and other situations that
requires you to stand for the truth. As excellent as integrity is, it is still measured against immorality or corruption before someone is given a credit of living an integrity life.
Where does integrity start from?
Knowing that it does not start when you assume a leadership office, propelled me to ask: where does integrity starts from? Integrity is a seed or seed that drops in you while you are growing up and develops into a lifestyle. When the seeds are well nurtured and grown to a big tree, falsehood, lie, immorality, deceit, and the like, automatically disappear in you. This is because whenever any of them comes up in you, the question you will ask yourself is: is this the real me? This is not being religious, rather it’s a way of life. Leadership is messed up today because only a few who comes into leadership comes with a lifestyle of integrity.
Many even believe that no matter what I do, leadership covers up for me. I don’t have much to say on history or storytelling; Henry Ford stood his ground against the ALAM; the body of automobiles in the United States, to ensure an ordinary man could afford a car. If he had boycotted his way based on the offer given to him, he would have died with his vision and made life more horrible for the people.
Integrity stands for the truth even in the face of death. But for what many people would eat, on assuming the office of leadership, integrity disappears because the contract needs to be changed or manipulated; for selfish reasons to change some figures on the cheque to bring more money into their personal account, knowing fully that people are outside, under the bridge and having no place to hide their heads.
Integrity is always questioned aloud in government positions as if that is the only abode of integrity or where integrity should always be. The man that leads a group of five(5), how about him and integrity? This man promises to be in a scheduled meeting by 5 pm and he is still strolling in 5:30 pm, hoping to see every member already in attendance.
Now, ask me further: can this be called a leader or does he have integrity in him? Let’s take the question back to this man; if he can genuinely answer this question, he stands the ground to question any corrupt government leader, but if not, let him be excused from his office until he develops the lifestyle of integrity. Make integrity a lifestyle.
