would have been safe with her as a neighbor.
Too often, it seems honesty and integrity don’t pay off in the short
term, whereas dishonesty and lack of integrity do. How often have we
heard sayings like ‘‘Do unto others before they can do unto you’’ or
‘‘No good deed will go unpunished’’? In the Bible (as in business and
organizational life), wrongdoers ultimately receive their proper conse-
quences and virtuous people their just rewards, although not without a
lot of needless suffering. If only people could be more honest from the
beginning.
For instance, there’s the ancient case study of Pharaoh, whose lack of
integrity rivals any modern leader. This absolute ruler of Egypt could
not tolerate any threat to his power. To keep his Hebrew slaves and
build his vast monuments to himself, he was willing to rain destruction
and death on his own people. When he refused to let the Hebrews
go, God visited ten progressively destructive plagues on the Egyptians,
starting with frogs (a relatively benign affliction) and moving to the
killing of the firstborn (talk about progressive discipline!).
Pharaoh relented, probably because his own son was one of those
killed. The story of the Israelites’ hurried packing and exodus (resulting
in the world’s fastest-baking bread, matzoh) is well known to Jews and
Christians alike. And it’s a good thing that they were able to ‘‘bake and
6
THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
run’’ so quickly, because Pharaoh’s ‘‘integrity’’ lasted only a few days.
He went back on his word and pursued the Hebrews into the desert.
We’re all familiar with what happened to Pharaoh’s men when they
tried to pursue the Israelites across the dry bed of the Red Sea, which
had been parted for the fugitives. Seas may part for people of honor and
integrity, but they often rush back to drown those whose word means
nothing to themselves or others.
One test of a leader’s integrity is his or her attitude toward ‘‘public’’
property. Some leaders take it all with them; others refuse to take a
penny of the funds with which they have been entrusted. In recent
times we know of leaders like Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda
(she of the thousands of pairs of shoes), who appropriated much of their
country’s wealth before absconding to foreign shores. Compare their
leave-taking to that of Samuel, who presided as the high priest of Israel
for several decades. Not only did he refuse to take anything not belong-
ing to him, he also asked his countrymen to identify anything that he
had accumulated through the power of his office, and he would quickly
and cheerfully return it!
Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord . . . Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated?
Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe to make
me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these, I will make it right.
‘‘You have not cheated or oppressed us,’’ they replied. ‘‘You have not
taken anything from anyone’s hand.’’ (1 Sam. 12:1–4)
Now, how many of today’s business or political leaders would will-
ingly open themselves up to such scrutiny? Michael Milken and Ivan
Boesky certainly would not pass the test. Neither would many of the
third-world leaders like the Sultan of Borneo, who made off with $1
billion worth of his country’s oil wealth. But the third world is not the
only place where political leaders fail to measure up in this area: Just ask the driver of the truck that pulled up to the Clintons’ new Westchester
County mansion to quietly remove and return to the White House a
large collection of expensive furniture that had been donated—not to
them personally but to ‘‘the Office of the President.’’
Honesty and Integrity
7
Samuel didn’t passively respond or react to an investigation of his
possessions. He initiated it himself ! He invited investigation of his honesty and integrity, down to the last ox and donkey, promising to return
anything that might have been immorally appropriated, no matter how
insignificant. And he promised to rectify the least evidence of impropri-
ety or dishonest gain.
This type of integrity runs throughout the Old and New Testaments.
Consider the farewell speech of the disciple Paul to his followers:
I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves
know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs
of my companions . . . They all wept as they embraced him and kissed
him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. (Acts 20:32–37)
Is it any wonder that such a profession and display of integrity and
honesty provoked such heartfelt loyalty from Paul’s followers, or that
their grief was so great over the thought of losing him? If you left your
organization today, would your followers grieve so openly about losing
you, and if they did, would any of their grief relate to losing a leader of integrity?
But is integrity really attainable at the highest levels in modern busi-
ness? Can’t it be an impediment to material success? Charles Wang,
chairman of Computer Associates, sees no such conflict. Wang is head
of a $4.7 billion company, but he argues that effectiveness often boils
down to truth telling, not dollars.
To be a successful person . . . you have to have integrity. Your word
has to be everything you’ve got. You must have a moral compass. That’s
especially true if you’re a leader because you’re exposed more. People will get a sense of you, and if you are not true . . . they’ll get a sense that you are sleazy . . . We buy a company, there’s a contract that’s just terrible, but you inherit all the contracts. You can argue the guy had no authority to sign it, but you . . . honor the contract.’’ 5
8
THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
But leadership doesn’t always have to be on a grand scale or come
from the very top. John Boten, commercial systems manager of John
Deere, feels that every transaction, no matter how large or small, should
be conducted with integrity. When his company was undercharged by
a vendor, he acted like King David, not King Ahab. ‘‘There was no
question about it, we paid the vendor the amount that was due . . . it
was taught to me early in my career that I have to have integrity in
everything I do.’’6 This one transaction was not going to ‘‘make or
break’’ the company. Boten elected to follow his conscience and the
words of Luke 16:10: ‘‘Whoever is dishonest with little will be dishon-
est with much.’’
INTEGRITY DESPITE TEMPTATION
AND ADVERSITY
The story of Zacchaeus shows us that people who have lost their integ-
rity can find it again. Zacchaeus was a tax collector for the Roman
government, one of the least popular professions in ancient Israel. But
he was not beyond rehabilitation. Because he was a short man, he
climbed a tree so he could more clearly see and hear this mysterious
prophet, Jesus. Jesus’ response was to invite himself to the home of this
social outcast:
‘‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately, for I must stay at your house
today’’ . . . All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’’ But Zacchaeus stood up and said . . .‘‘Look Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I
have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay him back four times the amount.’’ (Luke 19:1–8)
That’s a pretty big turnaround for a tax collector. Even Samuel, Isra-
el’s high priest, promised to give back only what he had taken, not four
times what he had taken!
Sometimes the integrity of those who have sinned outshines that of
Honesty and Integrity
9
those who have always taken the high road. In the early 1990s, audio-
tapes revealed that a group of Texaco executives had racist attitudes and
were systematically denying the hiring and promotion of Afri-
can Americans. Texaco denied the problem at first, but finally CEO
Peter Bijur decided to take an approach with more integrity. He fired
one of the offending executives, denied retirement benefits to another,
established a plan to hire more African Americans at all levels of the
organization, and settled a lawsuit for $140 million. That’s a pretty big
turnaround for an oil executive.
Rick Roscitt of AT&T Solutions might have been tempted to mis-
represent his organization’s capabilities, since his new venture repre-
sented a huge financial risk for the organization and a personal risk to
his professional future. Although he needed every bit of new business
he could get, he turned away clients he didn’t feel he could serve cor-
rectly, and admitted errors immediately, without the all-too-common