Role of Integrity in Christian Leadership
The Center for Creative Leadership conducted research on performance success, investigating strength qualities and focusing on four character elements that have repeatedly been shown to be important among business executives: integrity, bravery, perspective, and social intelligence. All four traits are related positively to performance; however, the researchers probed further to determine the relative importance of these four strengths – At the top of the organizational leadership hierarchy, integrity and bravery were more important. The study concluded that integrity and bravery are related--Integrity is essential in making decisions on what action should be taken, and bravery is required to take
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The first is the adherence to a moral or ethical principle. The second is the pursuit of an undiminished state or condition, which is acquiring the character strength to learn from one’s past ‘mistakes’ and to continually seek self-improvement. Application of ethical principles and rules are essential to guide someone in doing the right thing in all situations, nevertheless, it is also essential for one to seek developing one’s abilities and propensity to understand situations, and to attain the appropriate skills to carry out the required directives. Hence, leaders must continually seek knowledge and understanding in proper guidance, and attain skills to rightfully interpret situations. Everyone makes mistakes, and being a person of integrity does not mean one has never violated a moral or ethical principle. One’s integrity reputation of today is a birth result of practicing accountability to moral and ethical principles, and a product of valuable lessons from painful consequences of past misdeeds. Therefore, integrity requires humble introspection, not self-righteous declaration. So, being mindful of the fact that integrity is built over the long haul (Maxwell, John C. (2007), before one can truly embrace the notion of individual integrity, one needs to develop the ability to intellectually wrestle with the urge to rationalize away personal underlying faults and the related …show more content…
This is a powerful warning to all Christians. We are aware of our requirement to be a people of high moral standard of loving and doing good to everyone that we meet as long as it is humanly possible. However, the truth is that we sometimes fail to do just this. When this happens, we should be quick to repent, and turn to our heavenly father who is lovingly calling us back into a right relationship with him. Any deliberate disobedience to repent and correct the wrongdoing is referred to as sin.
In conclusion, of all the aspects of character strengths of Christian leadership, integrity is the most critical – it helps to build valuable trust between people, and is vital to the attainment of success in organizational