Unless you live in a cave or under a rock, it has been difficult to avoid listening to the endless hours of discussions about the 'fiscal cliff'. “Discussion” may be the wrong word to use.' Discussion implies dialogue. What the" leaders" in Washington have done is to make us feel paralyzed, fearful and worried about the impact of going “over the cliff'”. We have become so distracted by this hype that I wonder what we are really missing, what are we being distracted from......not that I am paranoid or anything!
In a discussion with someone the other day, he referred to the lack of integrity in leadership today leading to the current state of uncertainty and frustration.
“Everyone seems to be out just for themselves. Politicians just want to get themselves reelected. They don't really care about the 'little guys like us'.”
After thinking about his statement for a moment, I responded by asking, “Don't you mean leadership with integrity?”
I know the two statements don't seem very different and I may be splitting hairs, but my belief is that integrity is a moral and ethical quality in people and people bring that quality to the position. The position doesn't give a person integrity, the person gives integrity to the position. So...current leadership may have created the …..“integrity cliff”. Just ask the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Did he really tell a fellow legislator to “go f___ himself?.” And now he is trying to defend his comment in this morning's paper!! Maybe too much time in the tanning booth has tanned the brain.
The definition of integrity includes words such as honest, high moral character, moral uprightness. I am not sure what 'uprightness' means, but if it has the word moral in front of it, it must be OK
As society has changed over the year, I have come to believe that the qualities associated with a high degree of integrity have changed also. Actions once viewed to be the standards for defining high levels of integrity, have been “dumbed down” to explain today's lack on honesty and the loss of a moral compass. Behaviors that never would have been accepted years ago are now part of a new mainstream of leadership and help to define the new 'personal integrity'. Has the term 'honest leader' become an oxymoron?
Now don't get me wrong. There are some good, honest people out there, both men and women. Unfortunately the ones that attract our attention are those we hear about making the headlines, those exhibiting a lack of integrity, not only in their leadership roles, but maybe their personal life as well. Can we actuality separate the two? Wasn't it Stephen Covey who said that you can 't live one way in your private life and another in the public one.
So maybe we have been taken to the edge of a new 'cliff,' one with little financial cost, but one with great moral and ethical costs If there is a time when we need leadership with integrity and the highest standards, it may be now. If there is a time when we need 'truth in leadership', it is now. If there is a time when we need leaders we trust, it is now. The decisions and the path to the future is too important to get lost in being misguided.
Watch out! There is a new cliff up ahead and the first step could send us over the edge.
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