Demonstrate Integrity

Here are a few practical ways to ensure you’re always acting with honour in the workplace and make integrity more than just a fancy word.

1. Bring your values to work:

This is an opportunity for you to experience your job when your actions and decisions are completely aligned with your personal values like achievement, contribution, dependability, honesty, recognition, status, accountability, etc.

As a leader/professional, your work should be a reflection of your personal values. Bring your values to work and whenever you make a decision, people will know you mean it

2. Tell the truth:

It is easy to be transparent when the news is good. You won a new business, acquired a new client or made that all-important sale. When the news is positive, you shout it from the rooftops (or at the next staff meeting).

But how do you behave when the news is bad? How do you tell your boss the difficult news that the client was unmoved by the presentation? Or that a critical meeting did not go as planned? You tell the truth. Most bosses will forgive a few uninspiring presentations if you tell the unvarnished truth. At least your boss knows you can be trusted.

3. Don’t publicize negativity:

Your boss took a risk on you when he/she hired you. The last thing he/she wants to hear is that you are repaying his loyalty by looking for a new job. Or that you’ve been complaining about the company on social media or otherwise.

While you want to be clear about your wins and losses to your boss and colleagues, you should resist bad-mouthing the company or anyone you work with. Demonstrate integrity in the workplace by keeping your complaints about your boss to yourself.

4. Use your position, don’t abuse it:

Repeatedly show your employer that you are worthy of the trust he/she has put in you to do your best work. Demonstrate your integrity by never abusing any of your freedom with personal phone calls, Internet use, too much socializing with co-workers, etc. In addition, when you always deliver on what you promise, others will trust that you are a person of your word.

5. Offer respect to every colleague:

Set an example by respecting your colleague’s boundaries – both physical and emotional. If you work in a cubicle, don’t yell at your co-workers through the walls. Instead, email or text them and ask if you can come by for a few minutes. Behave as if every person on staff has a door to their cubicle, and knock on it only in an emergency.

If you notice that a colleague looks stressed or anxious, offer to help ease some of his/her workload. (If they reject your offer, respect that, too.) Furthermore, you show respect by giving others a chance to be heard and honouring their opinions and input.

6. Give credit where it’s due:

In certain situations, it is hard to get the credit you deserve. However, you will find that the more you credit others with helping you out, the more credit you will gain in return. Giving credit where it is due helps promote comradeship.

7. Meet all deadlines:

Integrity in the workplace starts with meeting the deadlines. No one, least of all your boss, wants to hear the many reasons why you couldn’t meet a deadline. All he/she wants to hear is that the work is ready.

You will prove yourself a person of integrity if you come through when you say you will. It may help to under-promise on the delivery date by a few days to give yourself the cushion you need to complete the work on time.

8. Approach challenges with courage:

Showing courage in each aspect of your professional life demonstrates integrity. It may mean having to go back to a client with new information that proves something you stated was wrong.

It may mean standing up to a boss who wants to save money in a way that makes the workplace unsafe. This is best done in private, rather than calling the boss’s integrity into question in public, although if you aren’t able to change their mind, you may need to enlist another boss.

Reference/Citation/Source

• 13 Ways to Demonstrate Integrity in the Workplace
  https://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/how-succeed-with-integrity-competitive-workplace.html
• 5 Ways To Demonstrate Integrity At Work Today
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/karagoldin/2019/02/26/five-ways-to-demonstrate-your-integrity-at-work/#4f3e7caf2808