HOW to Place INTEGRITY No. 1 IN BUSINESS?
Yesterday, something unusual happened… and I feel like sharing my thoughts.
It’s about INTEGRITY, in which, this is so important when it comes to business — or I should say, this is extremely important when it comes to human values.
What is INTEGRITY?
The simplest answers from the dictionary will be around honesty, being ethical or what most people say, “trustworthiness”.
It took me a while to ‘think’ of how to share my thoughts here; please forgive me if my sharing is a little confusing or you don’t really get the whole picture — because the real story is really long and it took me more than 24 hours to ‘digest’ the entire scenario. Let me share with you the learnings and some thoughts okay 🙂
When it comes to business; for me — Integrity is always at the top! It goes to my coaching clients and students too. I always ask them to be honest and do things legally, morally and ethically. And that’s why, my clients keep coming back to me and they enjoy working with me. In the business world, we always hear that there are people who cheat; they are people who under-deliver; they are people who do tricks to close sales — YES, there are such people… and many of them too!
So, what can we do? We don’t follow their footsteps!!! WHY? For me, I can’t sleep at night IF I do something without integrity. You must be thinking that it’s impossible that I am always 100% honest — Yes, you’re right! I am a human being; there are times that I hold back and observe; occassionally I make stupid decisions that leads to terrible mistakes. I may think I am honest; but sometimes, things don’t get my way and I make mistakes and mistakes…
What is MOST IMPORTANT here? What’s the story? The most important thing is that, I DON’T ‘MISUSE’ the people that I care for or I work with. Even I make mistakes, most are accidental or because of I’m too courageous to take risks. I take full responsibility to what I do. I am concern about my mistakes and I will think of how to do things differently so that I get different results every time I deal with something.
Okay, you may think that I’m going too far. Let me come back to this keyword — INTEGRITY!
Why do we have to have INTEGRITY in our undertakings?
Again, very simple — because TRUST is difficult to gain. TRUST is gained through weeks, months or even years. But Trust can be gone within seconds… I would say, within 1 second.
I was being introduced to an insurance agent last year; decent looking girl who has the biggest heart (according to the people who introduced me to her). I somehow agree, she’s chatty and looked helpful. BUT today… I discovered that she’s not trustworthy. My loved one bought one policy from her. I’m not revealing the whole scenario here BUT it’s confirmed that she has a big issue with INTEGRITY and TRUST.
Question – why cheat at the first place? Is selling a few thousands policies “without integrity” something that an agent enjoys?
Question – why is a person selling insurance? To help people or to chase for targets and do whatever it takes to close the deal?
Question – Does she understands that selling a policy does not mean ‘closing a sale’ — it is to help people to lighten the burden of the person or the person’s family when time comes?
Question – where is the INTEGRITY?
I used to work in multi-national companies. I have seen many people using tricks to close sales and I have heard many victims call in to complain to the companies I worked with. Obviously, not all cases are REAL because there is a different side of stories. Even I give it a 50% real stories and 50% fake stories — still 50% of the people are lack of Integrity. To me, lack of Integrity = NO INTEGRITY at all.
If you look at those businesses like Insurance, MLM, Investments (etc); it is essential to understand WHY you are in such industries. Your task is to ensure that you are there to help people; you are there to help people to achieve their dreams – meanwhile you achieve yours. BUT not to cheat; especially people around you. You should be out there to motivate, support, encourage others to be successful. Be mindful; what goes around, comes around. When you do good; you meet with good people. If you have INTEGRITY, your business will grow — because people around you will watch you!
I consider myself as a teacher. I teach people about business. At the same time; I teach people about values. All my clients and students will sign Code of Honour. We are on the same page. We have the same values. We play game according to the values and we are honest. If there are challenges, we support each other. We celebrate wins. We back each other up. We give RUTHLESS SUPPORT!
This article is for awareness. I feel so disappointed with this person and obviously, I hope that she will change. WHY? Because, it requires a lie to cover a lie. It requires strong values to have INTEGRITY. It just happened that I discovered this matter. What IF I didn’t get to know about it for years?
Be Professional, Be a Great Person…
Have INTEGRITY my friends, I wish you all a great holidays.
XOXO
Khing Wong
#khingwongofficial