How Taking the High Road Creates a Competitive Advantage in Business By Adrian Gostick & Dana Telford What is integrity and why is it important in business? Authors Adrian Gostick and Dana Telford believe businesspeople with a high degree of integrity consistently display 10 telling characteristics that, in turn, gives them a competitive advantage within both their companies and their industries. This book offers practical advice on developing a higher sense of integrity and its resulting competitive advantage.

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The Integrity Advantage
How Taking the High Road Creates
a Competitive Advantage in Business
By Adrian Gostick and Dana Telford
Published by Gibbs Smith, 2003
ISBN 1586852469
Introduction These are the 10 integrity characteristics:
There are some written and unwritten rules of busi- 1. You know that little things count.
ness that are just plain wrong when you look at 2. You find the white (when others see gray).
them from the perspective of integrity. How many 3. You mess up, you ‘fess up.
of us, however, are on the proverbial edge of the 4. You create a culture of trust.
cliff — with casualties occurring all around us — 5. You keep your word.
and fail to recognize the dangers? 6. You care about the greater good.
What is integrity? The latest version of Merriam- 7. You’re honest but modest.
Webster’s dictionary defines it as firm adherence to 8. You act as if you’re being watched.
a code of especially moral or artistic values. 9. You hire integrity.
Jim Burke of Johnson & Johnson calls integrity 10. You stay the course.
“providing a mechanism for individuals and organi- By integrating those 10 factors into your every-
zations to trust you.” day behavior, you’ll gain the Integrity Advantage.
Millard Fuller of Habitat for Humanity describes
it as “a consistency and steadfastness in your life You Know Little Things Count
with what is truthful and what is right.” There’s a story about two little frogs placed in a pot
Shelly Lazarus, chairman and CEO of Ogilvy of warm water to make soup. The first smelled the
Mather Worldwide, says a person with integrity onions, recognized the danger and immediately
“puts forth a set of beliefs and then acts on prin- jumped out. The second frog hesitated since the
ciple.” water felt so good and decided to stay in for just a
Wayne Sales, president and CEO of Canadian minute to relax. He rationalized that he could jump
Tire, says “it means doing the right thing.” out before too long. As the water temperature in-
Based on observing and interviewing leaders creased, the frog adapted, hardly noticing the
like that, 10 characteristics emerge as being con- change — until it was too late.
sistently displayed by people with a high degree of That’s how businesspeople lose their integrity
integrity. Someone who does all 10 things all the — a little bit at a time until they’re in hot water and
time has near-perfect integrity. But the reality is have nowhere to go. The erosion of a person’s in-
that it’s a sliding scale — we each fall short in one tegrity is rarely quick and spectacular, as in a Holly-
way or another. wood blockbuster. It usually occurs as a gradual
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2. The Integrity Advantage By Adrian Gostick and Dana Telford
slipping of standards that’s hard to spot — and hard to chief Shelly Lazarus notes, “Here is a brand that is
stop — until it’s too late. committed to the highest level of human endeavor and
To have the Integrity Advantage, you don’t lie or all sorts of wonderful abstract thoughts. But when it
cheat on the small things and as a result you aren’t cor- was exposed that they were involved in questionable
rupted by the larger things — the lure of power, prestige labor practices, they didn’t step up and say, ‘It’s our re-
or money. Just as importantly, if you have integrity you sponsibility and we are going to do something about
stick to your internal code of morality, even at the risk of this.’ Instead, they said, ‘We subcontract and that’s not
losing your comfortable place in the world. our business.’ It was a huge disappointment, I think, to
their employees and consumers because it was so
You Find the White (When Others counter to what people saw Nike to stand for.”
See the Gray)
In the work world, we all encounter gray areas. They You Create a Culture of Trust
emerge when we’re faced with a right-versus-right The integrity of the people around you is critical. Each
decision, or when the right thing to do is unclear. And of the businesspeople interviewed works tirelessly to
the farther you rise in an organization, the harder the create a positive, ethical team environment. “It’s got to
decisions become and the more tough, gray decisions start at the top,” says Lazarus. “If we have learned any-
you face. thing from this current round of revelations, it’s that if
In such situations, you need an unwavering com- the people at the top aren’t committed to integrity, if
mitment to spend the time and energy to figure it out. they don’t live their own values and the values of the
“If there is any question if something is right or wrong, company, there’s no hope.”
or if this will impact on your integrity, you can’t just say, To have the Integrity Advantage, you help to create
‘Maybe it’s O.K.’ A person with integrity finds out,” the right work environment, one that won’t test the per-
says Joel Richards of El Paso Corp. sonal integrity of your employees or co-workers. You
To help, you need good advisors — people with in- reinforce integrity through principles, controls and per-
tegrity who can help you out. “Don’t be a lone ranger,” sonal example. And you reward those in your employ
warns Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs. “Sometimes who display personal integrity in their actions.
people are good people but they make judgment er-
rors. It’s not a question of morality; they just make a You Keep Your Word
mistake. So whenever there’s a close call, you need to Not so long ago, if you gave your word, it was worth
seek advice, get a second set of eyes and ears.” something. Today, words are cheap.
But as Stephen Covey has noted, the key to suc-
You Mess Up, You ’Fess Up cessful relationships is trust. Joseph Badaracco, a Har-
During the Tylenol poison scare in 1982, Johnson & vard University professor and author of Leading Quietly,
Johnson acted with integrity, reacting quickly by alert- says “making good on your commitment is a window
ing the public to the potential danger and recalling mil- on integrity,” although he cautions against becoming so
lions of the capsules at a cost of around $100 million. rigidly oriented toward doing your duty that you become
The result was an increase in trust, and although some an automaton, unable to think for yourself.
people thought the Tylenol brand was dead, it remains Employees don’t follow leaders they don’t trust.
a powerhouse today. Jim Burke, the company’s presi- Employers don’t hire people or promote people they
dent and CEO at the time, says he was “absolutely don’t trust. Clients don’t buy from suppliers they don’t
convinced than an honest approach was going to trust. To have the Integrity Advantage, you act with in-
work, even though I got shaken up a couple of times tegrity to gain trust.
with people I really cared about who gave me a sce-
nario that suggested it may not.” You Care About the Greater Good
By contrast, Nike didn’t initially stand by its per- Some people call it karma. Some call it the golden rule.
ceived principles when faced with accusations of dubi- The concept remains the same: what goes around
ous labor practices in Asia in the 1990s. Advertising comes around.
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3. The Integrity Advantage By Adrian Gostick and Dana Telford
Kent Murdock at O.C. Tanner highlights the com- small, it is an organization — and a man — that sets
mitment to the collective whole: “There is a huge ethi- the standard for running a company with high integrity,”
cal perspective from committing to bettering the com- Graham says.
pany versus a personal agenda of how much money
can I get out of here. I’m not saying you have to sacri- You Hire Integrity
fice for the company — work 80 hours a week or give It’s relatively easy to teach telephone etiquette, com-
up your family. But to be successful long-term and to puter skills or company procedures. Even communica-
be noticed and rewarded, you must ensure that all your tion or language barriers can be overcome. But it’s very
actions will make the company successful.” difficult (although not impossible) to train a person to
Millard Fuller says a person with integrity lives with have integrity.
humility and an eye towards others, and can still be That’s one reason Don Graham recommends hiring
successful and well rewarded. “Integrity is thinking of and promoting people from inside your organization
the bigger picture, finding a purpose that is bigger than whenever possible. “The best way to predict what
yourself,” he says. someone’s going to do in the future is to know what
they’ve done in the past — watch how people address
You’re Honest but Modest difficult business issues, how they deal with people
Honesty isn’t something you claim, like a fancy title — who work for them, how they deal with the people for
telling everybody around how honest you are. It’s a whom they work.”
judgment made by the people around you based on Jose Paulo Lemann of Gillette says integrity is the
your actions, every day of your life. first thing he looks for in a candidate. “I think the one
“People who talk about their own integrity usually thing you really can’t deal with is lack of integrity. If a
put me on alert,” says Lazarus. Similarly, Frank Vander- person is playing games, even if they are useful to the
Sloot of Melaleuca says people shouldn’t be out telling firm in some ways, in the end they get mixed up; they
the world how honest their company is. “I had a don’t function within the whole organization.”
spokesperson once who was out touting us — and To have the Integrity Advantage, you hire and sur-
telling our salespeople to tout us — as an honest com- round yourself with straight arrows who have a strong
pany ... and to really go into our honesty as a company. sense of personal integrity. You promote those who
I reeled him in and those he had talked to. I told them demonstrate an ability to be trusted.
it’s not the right thing to do, first. And second, we
would like to run a business where after somebody has You Stay the Course
had experience with us for five or 10 or 15 years they Consistency pays off. Diane Peck, former senior vice-
say for themselves, ‘That’s an honest outfit.’ We want president of Safeway, notes that “people who have in-
to be worthy of that.” tegrity are consistent in what they say and do. They are
almost predictable ... You know what to expect from
You Act as if You’re Being Watched them, you know what the outcome is going to be.”
Does it seem as though your every move is being Consistency is the mark of a person who isn’t af-
watched? If so, you’re a leader. People really are fected by changes outside him or her. Money, power or
watching you. A leader with integrity knows this and influence may come and go, but a person’s actions are
makes decisions that can be scrutinized by anyone. inseparably connected to his or her inner moral values.
Don Graham of The Washington Post has watched You can’t harness the Integrity Advantage without
Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, be- developing consistency.
cause he’s one of the greatest exemplars of integrity in
business. He says Buffett makes decisions as if one of Conclusion
his investors was constantly peering over his shoul- Integrity takes work. You can start by rating yourself
ders, and he isn’t afraid to discuss any and all deci- from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest) on each of the 10
sions. “I think it’s worth studying every aspect of Berk- characteristics of integrity, and then getting a second
shire Hathaway’s behavior, because in things big and or third opinion. Evaluate your environment — is it pre-
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4. The Integrity Advantage By Adrian Gostick and Dana Telford
venting you from acting with integrity and, if so, can Related Reading
you work to change it or do you need to get out? Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the
Finally, start an individual revolution, picking two Right Thing, by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr., Harvard Bus-
things to work on in your own behavior — something iness School Press, 2002, ISBN 1578514878.
you’ll do differently, to act with more integrity, and
something you’ll no longer do. Focus on behaviors, two The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire
at a time, and you’ll be on the way to making the In- Hathaway Managers, by Robert P. Miles, John Wiley &
tegrity Advantage your advantage. e Sons, 2001, ISBN 0471442593.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Adrian Gostick is a business author, Managing With Carrots: Using Recognition to Attract
lecturer and co-author of Managing With Carrots. Dana and Retain the Best People, by Adrian Gostick and
Telford is a researcher and management consultant. Chester Elton, Gibbs Smith, 2001, ISBN 1586850776.
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