Develop Personal Integrity

Personal integrity is the quality of being honest with yourself and others, and living a life that is aligned with your moral principles, not just liberty. Developing personal integrity requires examining your beliefs and value system, and taking conscious steps to behave in ways that are consistent with your personal moral code. Here are some ways to develop personal integrity.

Steps

  1. Identify aspects of your behavior that require change. Reflect on your interactions with others in the workplace, at home and in social situations to determine specific areas in need of improvement. For example, if you are late for work every day and feel guilty about creating excuses for this behavior, this may be an opportunity to develop greater personal integrity.
  2. Determine your reasons for not behaving with greater personal integrity. For example, you may be pushing unpleasant work tasks on to other employees instead of being honest with your boss about your inability to do the tasks. You may be afraid to admit to yourself or to your boss that you do not possess the right skills or that the job is not the right fit for you.
  3. Face the obstacles that weaken you to excuse yourself, lie or violate your moral code. Get involved in finding a more suitable use of your talents, facing your fears about how others may perceive you and/or seeking knowledge or counseling to address personal challenges and insecurities.
  4. Build relationships at home and work through greater truthfulness, being candid. For example, if managing a team of employees, be honest and direct with each individual about your expectations and employee performance. Avoid backbiting or gossiping.
    • Refrain from causing unnecessary harm. Part of developing personal integrity is gauging when and how to deliver the truth. Be careful not to confuse truthfulness with anger-driven and brutally honest confrontation.
  5. Make a list of tasks and behaviors in which you will become more trustworthy in. The list might range from basic tasks, such as remembering to take out the trash as promised, to repaying large or small sums of money in a timely manner.
  6. Respect the property of others. Consider any complaints you may have had or have received about using another person's belongings, parking in someone else's parking spot or littering on another person's property. Make a concerted effort to respect other people's belongings.
  7. Listen to and respect the opinions and decisions of others. Part of possessing personal integrity is Take Steps to Protect Human Rights of others. Respecting diverse thoughts and decisions is a sign of open-mindedness and integrity.
  8. Do more than you expect others to do. If you are in a position to contribute to the development of others or help them, to do something they cannot reasonably accomplish on their own, make an effort to assist them.
  9. Expect a trial and error process that requires persistent effort. Assess your progress, as success and integrity are not destinations, but making some progress: going forward. Expect yourself to learn and strive daily toward your goals, always making progress.
  10. Enlist the help of others, as mentors. The smiles and advice of colleagues, relatives and good friends, who know you well and have your best interest at heart, can assist your progress by providing objective feedback on a daily basis about the personal changes you are making.
  11. Develop your accountability. Learn to admit when you've made a mistake and apologize for it. If you were at least partly to blame for a bad situation, own up to your part in it instead of blaming others. If you admit that you've done something wrong, it's easier to be more honest and to avoid the same mistake in the future.
  12. Grow to be more independent, and rise out of rough times. Not withering away, not unnecessarily depending on others, which would logically increase hopelessness, lower pay and can aid slumlords and slums. Failing to learn, to work, to beat bad odds -- to be independent, suffocates the germ of virtue (integrity), and makes tools and designs for those who are ambitious for unearned goods and ill gained fame, paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson.[1]

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Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ Thomas Jefferson said, "Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."
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