1.5 - About University

1.11I NTEGRITY: GUT-LEVEL E THICSContributed by Layton Fisher and inspired by Gay Hendricks and Kate Ludeman.Integrity and its cousin, ethical behavior, are at the core of long-term successful leadership.Personal integrity, particularly of leaders, is the source and foundation of organizationalintegrity and ethics. This tool takes the cerebral concept of ethics and places it where you canunderstand and act on it—at gut level.Think back to a gathering of some type, a meeting or even a dinner with friends, a timewhen you noticed something in your body telling you, “Something isn’t right here!” You feeltension rise within you. You lose your sense of ease and ability to act spontaneously. A questionof integrity has surfaced. Someone’s opinion or behavior is hard for you to accept.Integrity boils down to:✔ being authentic with yourself,✔ being authentic with others, and✔ doing what you say you will do.B EING AUTHENTIC WITH YOURSELF AS A LEADERYou will respect yourself more when your feelings and your actions are in alignment or congruent.Biologically, the human brain is set up such that external stimuli come first throughthe primordial limbic brain. Put simply, things are felt before they are relayed to the thinkingcenter of the brain and brought into consciousness. To better understand your feelings, tuneinto your body’s signals—dry throat, shoulder tension, or a lump in your stomach—any ofwhich may be trying to tell you that something is out of whack here.➠➠➠First, you sense an emotion such as fear, anger, or sadness.Second, you need to name the emotion, to acknowledge the emotion to yourself: ”I’mangry,” “I’m scared,” or “I’m sad.” This is necessary because, although feelings live inthe body, dealing with them requires that you bring them into consciousness.Third, to act on your feeling, it’s necessary to think about what might have triggeredor caused this feeling. For example, “I’m apprehensive right now because I hear usagreeing to an action I believe to be at odds with our policy. This could cause ouremployees to lose trust in us.”The right opening to speak up can sometimes pass quickly in organizations, and peopleoften regret their silence and having missed the opportunity to lead. Stay connected to yourfeelings; acting with integrity creates a powerful model for others to trust their own feelingsand speak their own truths.B EING AUTHENTIC WITH OTHERS AS A LEADERThis means there’s congruence between what you say and how you act (the audio matches thevideo). Are there distortions, untruths, or omissions in your communications with others: Big36 SECTION 1 FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS