Why Is Integrity Important In Leadership

Is integrity important in leadership? I submit that it is and we’ve got Chad Hymas here to talk to us about why, why integrity is important. Hey friends Chad Hymas here, wanting to talk to you about a very very important topic. Why is integrity important in leadership and in life. I think integrity is probably most key. integrity is going with your heart more than your head. In other words always listen to what your heart is telling you more than your head. Integrity will cost you a lot. Don’t believe me? Let’s be careful but we can look at a couple scenarios that we’ve seen in the past. What does integrity cost? ask United that question. I’m not trying to judge an airline, saying look what’s going with your heart versus policy procedure. Ask some professional athletes who made bad choices what integrity cost with their marriage and with endorsements, ask them what integrity cost them? Even what we look up to as leaders, ask past presidents with choices, integrity. I’m not looking for perfection, people. I’m just looking for progress and Integrity is everything when it comes to leadership because it affects other people. So rule number one is, you always go with your heart more than your head. Think, let’s take that example. Let’s take and let’s take that united example with a CEO as well. Sp in a policy book we have a policy that caps endorsements of $800. Takes place in Chicago and as you all know we’ve seen on the YouTube videos and people have post, we get a man that gets dragged off the plane. Now don’t judge the agent she was doing her job and she was going based upon policy. Even though her heart told her to do different. And now you have an airline that is tainted at least for a while and the brand is gone. I love what the CEO did. Love this CEO come back and said from now on, I empower all of my employees to act on integrity and do it every day if it feels right. We’re changing the cap from $800 to $20,000 and if it whatever needs to happen, the client and the customer come first. We’re not dragging anybody else out the airplanes. We’re not calling security to do that. Now look what’s happened, you have a ripple effect with Delta, American, all these other airlines are changing because of that. Because they know that one breach of integrity, one breach, takes years to gain that trust. Think of it this way, think of integrity this way, you play it, you’re playing catch with your kid but not baseball or frisbee catch. Let’s just say you’re throwing your get up in the air. You ever done that before? Where your young child you just you want to make them laugh and you throw that kid up in the air you catch them? What if you breach that just one time you drop the kid what happens? the same thing to happen with the airline. It takes years to gain that trust. The kid doesn’t want you to play catch with them anymore. Last time you dropped him and he fell, so that trust, that is breached. So when it comes to leadership remember leadership is not identified by title it’s identified by your integrity. Let me give you this example this one’s kind of a fun example and I’ve used this before in a past video. In my household we have some, we have some policies and procedures kind of like United had with this incident that took place where, where passengers taken off of an airplane. I have some same rules this has made me rethink the United experiences made me rethink policy procedure but let’s talk about this. So in my house, here’s some, here are some white book rules that can’t be compromised. Dating. If you’re a young man in my household you can date when you’re 16 years old not before then. If you’re one of my daughters and you want to date? The policy is a little different. In 35 or 40 you can start dating. That’s the rule that I’ve written in the book. I don’t know how well that’s going to come over when she turns 16 but that’s the policy as written today. No, no I say that facetiously. My daughter will be able to date when she’s 16 years old but I’m going to be, I promise you, I’m going to be watching like a hawk. I guarantee you all that. So I got a, I got a boy that decided this last year for homecoming that he wanted to take a special-needs girl out to homecoming because she’d never been before so when he called me at the age of 18 and told me the news I said man that’s great and he sent me the picture of her with holding some pom-poms and the way that he asked her and I thought it was just an awesome idea and I was proud of him. And in fact I was so proud of him that after we hung up the phone, I was in Australia and I started to cry. I wept because I was proud of his decision, his choice, I was proud that he made that decision to do that without me spurring it on or egging him on or giving him the idea. He did this on his own and I thought it was going to be a date that they would never forget. So I was proud of my eight-year-old son taking this this girl that, that otherwise probably would not have the chance to go to homecoming. Now here’s where integrity comes in, just a few minutes after I hung up with the 18 year old, his younger brother age 15 did you catch that ? 15 freshmen. He’s a freshman, 15 years old. He calls me up says dad I want to go to homecoming. Now I’m in Australia, he’s back in Salt Lake City Utah, and he he’s challenging policy and procedure. Dad I want to go to homecoming. Well what’s the answer to all that? you guys know the answer to that. Son, you’re 15 years old the white book says you have to be 16, you’re not going to homecoming it’s against policy procedure I’m sorry it’s out. Then he says this, Dad I’ve already asked a girl out. Now I’m ticked. Now I’m hot, I am livid. Because he’s gone against policy procedure. I mean for all for all intents and purposes he’s a gone against the the biblical references in my house. It’s a white book if the rules are clear as day you don’t date until you’re 16. And then he says this, Dad I just went with my gut instead of my head. My older brother asked a special girl out to homecoming and she has a good friend who’s a senior. 4 years to my older dad, she’s four years older than me dad. And dad we just thought it would be a good thing if we did something different and dad aren’t you always telling people in your speeches that integrity is going with your heart over your mind anyway? well I just went with my heart boy. My response? Don’t use my crap on me boy just because I teach it doesn’t mean I live it that’s exactly what I said to him on the phone. Don’t you dare use my speeches against me. He said, dad Am i doing the right thing? I said well have you talked to your mom about this? he said, no dad I know you’ll say yes because it’s the right thing to do dad. I said, is this a date? he said, well technically it is we’re going to homecoming but dad I want this girl to be able to go to homecoming otherwise she’s going to graduate we’ll never have the chance to, dad are you still on the phone? I said ,yeah I’m just trying to My head is still stuck in a policy. I mean I’m really having a hard time with this but then again I’m not because I feel like it’s the right thing to do. Son, I hope you have a good time on the date I’ll, be there to take pictures. I’m excited for you I better go now bye. Click and I hung up. And then I wept because I realized that integrity and policy and procedure while they go hand in hand they’re two different things. Leadership without integrity is like playing baseball without a bat. Leadership without integrity it was like fishing without any bait. You got to have it and you have to do what’s right for other people even if it compromises what policy and book tell you to do. That’s why I love it when I find captains on airplanes who are willing to carry me on the plane because I want you to know that it’s against policy procedure for captains to do so. The reliability in doing so. But when I have a captain that comes up to me and says hey how can I help you out? and I say well sir I need help off this plane. And he says, I got you covered man whatever you need. That means that I have a captain that’s willing to help somebody out without waiting for the plane to go down to do it. In other words I’m not trying to get him fired. I just like the fact that he’s going with his heart more than his mind. I like the fact that he’s going his heart more than policy and procedure. I just want you to know that anytime I meet somebody like that, I’ll stick by their side. In a hotel room when I need help getting up onto a hotel bed because I don’t have the strength to do it, I meet people all the time that say sorry sir we can’t help you it’s against this against the hotel policy. We can’t help you. What are they worried about? they’re worried about insurance and liability and getting sued. I get that. I don’t want to look for a fight, I won’t fight but I promise you I will go find somebody that is willing to help me. And when I find that person, I stay by their side. Why? Because people with integrity are hard to find. The only thing that rules over policy procedure is going with your heart. Because if you get fired or if you lose your job or lose face because you went with your heart more than your mind, now the person that fired you has to go live with that and that’s a hard thing to live with. Very very hard thing. Live your life full of integrity. Always let your heart overrule your mind is telling you to do. Those people that let their mind think too much they’re compromising their integrity and are compromising personal conviction. People that let their head, people that think too much, if my boy would have said, you know what I don’t think I’m going to ask the special girl out because, I don’t, I’m not going to ask the special needs girl out because what are my friends going to think? He lacks personal integrity and he’s compromising conviction. People that let their head over rule what their heart is telling them are compromising that. And think of what would have not happened had that not occurred? They never would have gone out and the girls wouldn’t have the time of their life and other friends would not have followed suit. I guess the question is, I’m asking you if you have the same ability as that captain? Do you have the same abilities that CEO of United Airlines to take responsibility and empower all 83,000 employees have United to make choices based on their gut instinct? Now, that’s the rule now. You make choices based on your gut and you do what’s right for the client. I love what that CEO did. That’s what I’ve been trying to teach for years and that guy’s one act taking responsibilities change the way that every airline is looking at it now. This was not a bash on United, if anything this was a big thank you for creating a movement that will allow other people to look at things differently. That’s what integrity does. Until next time we visit this is Chad Hymas asking you to act with integrity. Thanks for watching Hero TV today. And thanks so much Chad for sharing us your wisdom on integrity and leadership. We’ve got a lot more information down in the description below. If you like this video, it helps us out when you click that like button. And remember to live on purpose, make a difference, be the hero.