Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We all say that we are people of integrity. But are we?

I hate to write this blog post. I know I hate to do it because I have been meaning to write it for seven or eight years, but still haven’t done it. Well, here goes.

We like to say that we have integrity. Of course we do because if we are not people of integrity we are people of duplicity. Yikes! Who wants to be duplicitous?

Consider the following situation:

A “manager” sits in a meeting with his subordinates. A “subordinate” mentions some bad news that should be sent up the chain to the manager’s “superior.” (I use the quotation marks as your organization probably uses different job titles.) The manager states, “Don’t worry. We won’t tell that fill-in-the-blank-with-your-favorite-derogatory-adjective superior.”

The manager has just told the subordinates:

Tell me (your superior) the truth. I won’t tell my superiors the truth.

This is duplicity; this is the complete lack of integrity.

Consider this similar situation:

A manager and several subordinates meet with some customers. During the meeting, the manager praises the customers for their work and ability. When the meeting ends and the customers leave the room, the manager says, “What a bunch of fill-in-the-blank-with-your-favorite-derogatory-noun.”

The manager has just told the subordinates:

I call people one thing when they are here and something else when they are gone.

Once again, this is duplicity; this is the complete lack of integrity.

Hey managers and the rest of us:

People observe what we do. Do we show integrity or duplicity?