hemming and hawing. ‘‘What inspired me most about Rick was how
honest he was about the business,’’ notes Chief Technology Officer
Dick Anderson. ‘‘He wouldn’t hesitate to say to a client, ‘You know,
we didn’t do this right’ or ‘We don’t think we should work for you’
. . . His aim wasn’t to smell like a rose all the time, but instead to make things right.’’ Adds a client, ‘‘He engaged us in good faith give and take
. . . he was honest, a man of his word, and courageous, and I’ll only
work with a partner like that.’’7
Warren Buffett, who has risen to the top in the rough and tumble
world of investing, notes that lack of honesty can create adversity. You might think that his hiring criteria would be aggressiveness and hard-headed numbers-crunching. But listen to his real hiring criteria: ‘‘integ-
rity, intelligence, and energy. Hire someone without the first, and the
other two will kill you.’’8
The Bible is very specific about doing business honestly: ‘‘Do not
have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. Do not
have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. You
must have accurate weights and measures, so that you may live long in
the land.’’ (Deut. 25:13–15)
If you want to ‘‘live long in the land’’ of Merrill Lynch, integrity is
10
THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
expected. Chairman Emeritus John Tully called brokers when they
made a large ‘‘killing’’ of $2 million or $3 million. ‘‘They thought I was
calling to congratulate them,’’ he muses. ‘‘But I was really calling to ask them a few questions. ‘How did you make all that money? If the New
York Times put how you did it on the front page, would you be proud?’
I wanted to remind them of the culture of this firm and I wanted to
make sure they lived it.’’
Tully also made integrity the first order of business in the perfor-
mance appraisals of the firm’s top 200 people. ‘‘The first question we
always asked was never, ‘How much did Dan produce?’ It was always,
‘Have you ever known Dan to distort or color the truth?’ ’’
Tully also insisted that the firm display its integrity during the 1987
stock market crash. Some firms elected to minimize the damage by
‘‘hiding’’ from their customers during that period. ‘‘I said today’s going
to be a day when we’re remembered for how we act. I want you folks
to get out there . . . answer the phones, treat your clients with respect,
give them good counsel . . . Do what’s right for people and . . . you
will be awash in clients. It never works the other way around.’’9
Another man who adhered to the same principles of integrity under
adversity as Tully but predates him by about four thousand years was
Job. You may argue that those Bible leaders had it easy, that they lived
in a much less complex world and traded in a few camels, not billions
of dollars. The issues of right and wrong were much more clear-cut
then, and ethical decisions could be made a lot more easily.
Tell that to the protagonists in the Book of Job. It is one of the
longest books in the Bible, an extended debate on integrity, humility,
and discipline and how these are to be applied in the ‘‘real world.’’
The ‘‘patience of Job’’ is legendary. What is often forgotten is his
integrity. Job was a recipient of every calamity known to God and man.
First, he had every single one of his oxen and donkeys carried off by a
marauding tribe called the Sabeans, who then ‘‘put to the sword’’ every
one of his servants. To compound matters, all his sons and daughters
were killed when a windstorm collapsed the house in which they were
feasting. Finally, Satan afflicted Job with painful sores ‘‘from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery
and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.’’ ( Job 1, 2)
Honesty and Integrity
11
Talk about hitting ‘‘rock bottom’’! Here is a man whose trials paral-
leled or surpassed any modern leader’s sufferings. He had owned seven
thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five
hundred donkeys, and a large number of servants. He had lost all seven
of his sons and daughters. If any man could be pardoned for temporarily
(or permanently) deserting his principles, it would be Job. Even his wife
suggested he was a gullible fool for sticking to these principles: ‘‘Are
you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!’’ ( Job
2:9–10)
But Job repeatedly refused to give up his integrity: ‘‘You are talking
like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?
. . . as long as I have life within me . . . my lips will not speak wickedness
. . . I will not deny my integrity.’’ ( Job 2:10, 27:2–5)
The modern leader may undergo many trials, but few of them as
devastating as Job’s. In a sense, all that he had left was his integrity, and he was determined to hold onto it. Leaders in all ages should realize that
whether the coffers are bulging or empty, whether the flock is increas-
ing or dwindling, integrity is the measure of leadership.
Consider Randall Tobias, CEO of Eli Lilly. When his company went
through some difficult times in the mid-1990s, he did not seek a pure
mathematical model for cutting costs. He considered the overall impact
on the company and on the individuals who had in many cases spent
their whole lives working for the company. Rather than dismiss them,
he offered early retirement and one year’s pay.
Bill Adams, CEO of Armstrong World Industries, takes an extremely
personal and proactive approach to integrity at his company. He gives
every employee his personal phone number and tells them, ‘‘Call me
personally if you are ever asked to do something you consider wrong.’’
His motto is not ‘‘Let the buyer beware’’ but ‘‘Let the buyer have
faith.’’10
But some people never learn. One of the most dishonest men in the
Bible is Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples who betrayed him, mostly
out of greed and perhaps also out of jealousy. Judas realized he had none
of the healing powers, communication skills, or ability to inspire others
positively that his ‘‘boss’’ had. He knew he was never going to be ‘‘the
12
THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
boss’’ or even the boss’s right-hand man. But he could make an impact
by betraying the man many believe to be the son of God.
Judas’ lack of integrity was noticed even before he betrayed Jesus.
People who lack integrity usually show it in a variety of situations. At a
dinner in Jesus’ honor, a woman took a pint of expensive perfume and
poured it on Jesus’ feet. Guess which disciple objected on the basis
of ‘‘integrity’’? The one who lacked it the most: Judas Iscariot, who
complained, ‘‘ ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to
the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’ He did not say this because he
cared for the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money
bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.’’ ( John 12:4–6)
The example of Judas shows how it takes only one dishonest person
or malcontent to severely derail a cooperative effort, particularly when
that person is at or near the top.
A modern leader who feigned empathy toward the poor while he
was enriching himself at their expense was William Aramony, former
CEO of The United Way, the organization that historically has helped
the modern equivalent of the widow, the orphan, the blind, the halt,
and the lame. Aramony, who was making $400,000 per year, was dis-
covered to have misappropriated a large amount of the organization’s
funds and resources for his own personal benefit.
ACTING WITH INTEGRITY
Words are not exactly cheap, but actions are dearer. Matthew empha-
sized that long speeches and ‘‘oaths’’ were not necessary to impress peo-
ple with one’s integrity.
Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair
white or black. Simply let your ‘‘Yes’’ be ‘‘Yes’’ and your ‘‘No,’’ ‘‘No.’’
(Matt. 5:33–37)
Honesty and Integrity
13
In recent years, we have been treated to leaders like Bill Clinton
asking interrogators to ‘‘clarify’’ the meaning of the word is, and Bill Gates questioning the meaning of the word concerned. In the face of obfuscations like these, it is sometimes difficult to believe these men’s
‘‘yeses’’ and ‘‘nos.’’
But let’s go back a few thousand years, to Nehemiah, whose integrity