I have been assigned projects and jobs where I had no experience and was trusted to do a good job. I’m not saying this to brag, just to point out that I know myself and am known to be a high achiever. It’s not like he has superpowers or he’s a genius or anything you can think of. What makes me a high achiever is that I have a very high degree of integrity.
First, I want to say a little bit about the meaning of integrity that I’m talking about. I’m not talking about anything to do with morality, right and wrong or good and bad, which most people mean when they talk about integrity. For example, you are good if you have integrity or bad if you don’t. I’m not talking about it like that, at all.
What I mean when I say I have a high degree of integrity is simple, but the real secret to high performance. What I want to say is; I honor what I say. I make promises, some of which I don’t know how will happen when I make them, and then I do what I have to do to keep them. When I find I can’t keep them, I talk to the people I promised and let them know. I face any consequence with force and make a new promise. When I say promise, I mean the results I will produce, including the time it takes to do what I say. This is a key point, because if you don’t include a time when what you said will be done, it’s not a promise, it’s just a sincere attempt (and even you know it may or may not be done!). I do not promise actions, but results, because results are the key to high performance. You will take whatever action you take, but if it doesn’t produce results, you won’t accomplish much.
Entire companies have dramatically increased their performance simply by adopting this concept. People shoot their success. It’s simple, but a new way of thinking and, like anything new, takes practice to master.
So if you’re interested in becoming a high achiever, embrace your integrity.
To review the steps:
1. Make promises about the results you will produce and include a date by which you will do what you promised.
2. Honor your promise by taking actions that are consistent with producing the results.
3. If it doesn’t produce the results, let the person who promised it know. Deal with the consequences of your failure.
4. Make a new promise, if applicable.
5. Critical point: it’s not about good or bad.
What I’ve noticed is that when someone starts to really embrace their integrity like I’m talking about here, they mostly notice all the places that they lack integrity. That’s not a problem unless you forget that integrity is not a good or bad moral judgment, but simply the key to high performance.