I want to share some thoughts I’ve gleaned through Rory Vaden’s books: Take
the Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose. I’ve enjoyed these books,
because they have helped me to work on focusing and purpose in my own life. One
area Vaden speaks about deals with integrity, which he describes as the congruence between your words and
your actions. There are six ways to strengthen your integrity as well as
six ways to weaken it.
Vaden’s 6 ways to keep your integrity:
- Give yourself AR’s
(Action Required). When you speak with someone, or respond
to an email or phone call, you use phrases like: “I’ll get back to you on
this in two days” or “I will finish this by Thursday”. This provides the
person a specific time when they can expect something from you and allows
you to show that you can fulfill what’s asked of you.
- Always be on time.
This helps others to see that you respect their time, your work schedule,
or other obligations.
- Over-deliver always on what you promised. People take notice when you
produce more than what you said you would do. It adds weight to your
words. It also allows for forgiveness during those times when perhaps you
are not able to complete something on time or as well.
- Don’t exaggerate the extent of your problems or
magnitude of your achievements.
Basically, this means don’t over exaggerate. Let your words speak of the
reality of what’s going on in your life.
- Tell people what you are afraid of and what you’re
disappointed in. When
you share your fears or struggles, it adds to your integrity, because it
shows you’re honest.
- Go directly to the source of any conflict you
have. Watch
out for the gossip triangle!
All
these will increase the power of your words and strength of your integrity.
Vaden’s 6
ways to weaken your words:
- Breaking promises.
- Uncontrolled language. Keep your language intentional. Don’t let
words fly out of your mouth without thinking about what you want to say.
- Tearing others down. It’s always a big deal to talk
bad about other people, because even if the other person has the same
opinion, they will know that you might do the same about them with someone
else.
- Creating backdoors for your commitments. Making commitment qualifiers:
“I should be able to…” or “I’ll try to…”
- Using too many words. Mark Twain said: “Brevity is
the essence of wisdom”. Using too many words always dilutes the impact of
your message.
- Intellectual dishonesty. Allowing someone to believe
something you know is not true.
Though we
know the definition of integrity to be the quality of being honest and having strong moral
principles; moral uprightness. I also like the second one given: the state of
being whole and undivided. When we strengthen our integrity, others will see us
as a person who is whole, sure, and trustworthy. I think these are all values
we can not only work on as individuals but also as a staff, as public libraries
have long been considered places of integrity.
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