Tough Decisions and the Fork in the Road

by Marguerite Granat on November 18, 2009

Until now I thought I knew what integrity was all about. It was something external rather than a state of balance.  One of the definitions of integrity is, “the quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.”

What makes you whole or undivided may or may not affect me the same way. Your values determine how you express your own integrity. Integrity is about aligning your values with your actions. This blog started out with a post about integrity because I believe that this is what makes a leader. I believe that integrity is the single most important ingredient in leadership. Integrity is something that you either have or you don’t. You can’t have 90% integrity, just like you can’t be 90% faithful to your spouse. Either you are or you aren’t.

If we’re divided inside because our values do not match our actions, we’re not going to experience integrity and the people around us are going to sense it. Even if we try to hide this division, it is tough to keep up the appearances that everything is OK inside. People can sense it like a wild animal senses the weakness of its prey.

The photo of the fork in the road above represents the situation that forces us to make a choice. Are we going to stay in our own integrity or are we going to choose internal division?

Socrates faced that tough decision when he ran into his fork in the road. He was put on trial and put to death because he refused to change his way of life. He challenged the system and refused to change his principles in order to save his life. He made a difficult decision and chose death rather than having to change his ways. His core value was freedom of thought and chose to die in freedom.

General Robert E. Lee‘s fork in the road came when President Lincoln asked him to lead the Union army on behalf of the North. His home, his family and close friends lived in the South. To turn against his family and friends would have caused him to be divided inside. It was a tough decision because he risked loosing it all including his life.

When Jeffrey Wigand found out that Brown and Williamson was misleading the public about the effects of nicotine, he was faced with his fork in the road. As head of R & D, his goal in joining the company was to develop a safer cigarette. Instead he had become part of the problem. In a moment of courage, he wrote a letter to his boss expressing concerns around the current practices. He was quickly let go losing his comfortable $300,000 salaried job. While helping the FDA come up with key evidence his life was threatened and everyone close to him abandoned him. In order to stay in his integrity, he took great risks that even threatened his life.

Your Insights and Thoughts

  • What does integrity mean to you?
  • Do you have stories of people who have made tough decisions that tested their integrity?
Photo Credits, Butch Osborne
Please Share!

    Tagged as: Integrity, Leadership Competencies

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    • Rick Polo

      Marguerite, I apologize for not having contributed recently to earlier posts, all of which are insightful and enjoyable to read. Candidly, though, I find the history/historical nuggets that you present to be the most interesting and fascinating parts of your think pieces, aside from the actual topics.

      In this post, I never made it past your second paragraph, which is why I am now typing away. I don’t know if it is that we totally disagree or whether the choice of your words is what has tripped me up.

      I do not believe that integrity is what makes a leader, nor do I think that integrity is the single most important ingredient of leadership. But we will probably agree that only those “great” leaders who have integrity are worthy of emulation. And even then, note that I use the word “great” in parentheses.

      Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler, to pick two obvious examples, were truly great leaders; but who among us would want to follow them or even have them as neighbors? Historians define the quality of greatness as … did they impact history in a significant way, did they able to lead legions of people, did they inspire fanatical masses, did they impart their vision on the world for a meaningful length of time, etc. Clearly, they were great leaders for a time, at least, though lacking any redeeming integrity. On the other hand, the “great” leaders who do/did possess integrity and, thus, changed the world for the better are the people we admire and consider “great.”

      Thus, I conclude that integrity is not really necessary to lead people nor to lead people “greatly.” After all, does Kim Jong-Il, the long-time leader of North Korea and the leader of a regime that has enslaved hundreds of thousands of people in slave camps, possess integrity? But he is most certainly a leader, and, alas, a great but evil leader.

      Secondly, I don’t even know if I agree with the proposition that there is any ONE, single attribute that is most important in leadership. For example, I’m not able to pick out the most salient skill among the following attributes and requirements for successful leadership: the ability to communicate, the ability to think through a plan, craft a strategy, organize a team, and marshal the necessary resources so as to implement a vision; the quality of empathy; the possession of an innate understanding of human nature and the consequent normal responses to typical situations; the ability to inspire individuals to set aside parochial interests in the pursuit of a common, higher goal; personal charisma and charm; courage; setting the personal example in all areas/matters. And I am sure I’ve left out other ingredients.

      And, lastly, I’m still stuck thinking about your last sentence on whether integrity is in an “either/or” trait – as in, you have it or you don’t. The only either/or situation of which I am aware that is indisputable is the computer machine language that underlies software code – nothing but billions of “off” or “on” switches. Is the quality of integrity the same as this? Would that imply some level of perfection? Maybe it’s me?! I would like to believe that I possess integrity and/or a level of integrity, but I admit I have done things that I regret deeply, that I wish could change, and which I would not want to disclose to any but my most closest friends.

      Anyway, I’m still thinking about all of this … all because of your well-chosen post. Have a great day! “Great”, of course, in the sense of happy and fulfilling!

      • Marguerite Granat

        Rick, it’s interesting how people use the word leader. The word is generic and refers to people in positions of power. On the other hand, the word can also be used as a compliment “you are a true leader”. Until I started writing this post, I was under the impression that the word integrity was something that described a positive attribute until I saw a different definition referring to “completeness or undivided”. I believe that in this case if we use integrity as defined in the beginning of the post it is surprizingly not an attribute but a state of mind. It’s knowing oneself so well that there is unity and oneness in all decisions made without a moral judgement. Some people might judge General Robert E. Lee for going to the South and say that his decision was misguided. In this particular case I say that what made him a strong and a powerful leader was walking with confidence without doubting where he stood. In some way I think that when a leader becomes too indecisive for a long period of time she becomes divided within herself. Once a leader has the necessary facts to make a decision, its important to be decisive. Those who know themselves well and what they stand for will be able to move forward without looking back. Having integrity using the “completeness” model then would mean that the person is completely sure and certain when making tough decisions that they are making the right decision without labeling it moral or immoral and knowing the risks associated with that decision. I think that all the three individuals described in this post were decisive, knew where they stood and were at peace with the tough decisions made. Thanks for sharing your comments authentically and lets keep the conversation going. We may not agree on whether integrity is important for leadership but you’ve made me ponder on a number of issues. The bottom line for me is that the deeper I dive into something the more muddled it seems to get.

        • Rick Polo

          Well, I do not disagree with a single sentence in your reply to my original reply! As to your last sentence that the “deeper you dive into something, the more muddled it seems to get”, I think that’s GOOD. After all, if it weren’t muddled, it would mean that it’s “too shallow to dive into” and not worthy of serious thought and consideration!

    • http://www.pharmacytechnicianblog.com Pharmacy Tech

      great post as usual .. thanks .. you just gave me a few more ideas to play with

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