Being trustworthy means that people can depend on you. Being faithworthy means that people can believe in you. Trustworthiness is table stakes. It means that people don’t have to worry about your performance. Faithworthiness is a game changer. It means that people are uplifted by your presence. You are proof that they can win, and a safe harbour when they don’t.
Here is a five-point integrity checklist to evaluate your faithworthiness. Each point is a perpetual work in progress.
1. Live Your Code of Values
Do you know your top five values—in order of priority? Most people cannot tell you what theirs are. And if you don’t know what they are, you’ll only live them by accident. Intentionally living your code is the surest route to a life of integrity and no regrets. Mine are: being fully utilized, making a difference, connecting with others, loving life, being successful. Diane’s are: compassion, happiness, knowledge, integrity, responsibility, humour, kindness, and love.
2. Be Whole
Whole means entire, unified, complete, and undiminished. Are you fully expressing your power? Or are you withholding your contribution? How much of you is going unused? Are you being worthy of your gifts? Are you being true to you? Are you consciously seeking self-actualization? I’m always in a state of tension around being whole but I’ve made peace with it. It pulls me forward. Writing this book with Diane is one of the ways I’m being whole.
3. Be Consistent across Your Roles and Mediums of Communication
Champions perform at levels of excellence that they never fall below. They honour the standards they set for themselves by preparing for them. As Archilochus, an ancient Greek poet, said, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” Excellence takes practice. Practice means repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency. That’s how you build consistency, and it’s consistency that builds loyalty and belonging.
4. Say It, Then Do It
How close are your actions to your commitments? If you give someone your word, can they take you at it? When all is said and done, more is said than done. Simply following through on promises will brand you as a person of integrity. But don’t just under-promise and over-deliver. Make a bold promise and then find a way to deliver it—to the benefit of everyone around you.
5. Be In Service to Others
Martin Luther King said, “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.” Diane and I created You Belong Here to empower you with a sense of safety while you take bold risks and win. We are engaging in “altruism at a profit”—we want to cause maximum good while we advance our personal agendas. First, we serve. Then, we win. We’re only as good as the difference we make.
