Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Integrity”
Truth matters and its your moral responsibility to find it. Trustworthiness matters and its your moral duty to insist on it. Never in my lifetime has truth been more important or more illusive. Though hard to find, within every mountain of careless claims, unsubstantiated assertions, fallacious reasoning and outright lies there are true facts and credible sources. It is your …
Sarah’s mom agreed to let her 16-year-old go to a party if she promised to be home by midnight. But as the Cinderella hour approached, Sarah did a quick risk/reward calculation. She knew her mom would be angry and probably ground her, but she was having so much fun she decided it was worth it. Sure enough, when she got …
1.Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, even if it’s not what others want to hear. 2. When you make a mistake, admit it and make amends. 3. Say what you mean and do what you say, even when its costly or inconvenient.
Chad and his three friends were college seniors and doing well in their classes. Even though the final physics exam was on Monday, Chad persuaded his buddies to take a weekend trip several hundred miles away. He told his worried friends they could study in the car, during the trip, and when they got back Sunday night. Instead, the boys …
There’s no doubt about it: Trust is an asset to any relationship and distrust an enormous liability. But thinking of trust in terms of its practical value can demean and distort its true significance as an endorsement of our character and as a sign of our worthiness. I get my clearest vote of trust when I stop to appreciate the …
Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, Confucius was asked, “Is there one word that may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?” He answered, “Reciprocity. What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” This basic principle, now called the Golden Rule, can be found in every major religion and philosophy. …
Honesty may not always pay, but lying always costs. Reputation, trust and credibility are assets no organization
When Molly found a child’s purse with three quarters inside, she chanted, “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” But her mom said the right thing to do was to return it to the person who lost it, and they went to the Lost and Found office. A week later, Molly found a dollar bill on a table. “We’ve got to go to …
Years ago, my wife Anne was talking to a woman I’ll call Lila about another lady I’ll call Gwen. Gwen had just been laid off and since she had only worked for the company for a short time, she wasn’t eligible to continue the company’s medical insurance. That’s important because she was eight weeks pregnant, and the reason she took …
When my son Justin was in high school, I went to an open house to meet his teachers. I was taken aback when one teacher casually mentioned that she had disciplined my son for cheating on a homework assignment. I asked my son why he hadn’t told me about this incident. “You didn’t ask,” he said. To say the least, …
Can a job applicant properly withhold information about a criminal record or being fired in a previous job? Can a woman who has just started dating properly say nothing about a previous marriage or abortion? These are problems of candor: When does an ethical person have a duty to reveal negative information about his past? First, let’s reinforce a basic …
Here is an excerpt from a commentary by Michael Arace, a sports columnist in the The Columbus Dispatch • Sunday February 1, 2015: “Meet Michael Josephson, former law professor, whose odd work it is to lecture government bureaucracies, corporations, military leaders and nonprofit organizations about building a sustainable ethical culture. He also has dedicated the past 20 years building up …
12 TRUTHS ABOUT LYING. 1. Honesty may not always pay, but lying always costs. 2. Trust is a tower, built stone by stone, lies take stones from the bottom. 3. There is no security in secrecy; every undiscovered lie is a live landmine. 4. Lies breed a bodyguard of new lies to protect themselves. 5. Lies look very different to …
Before you Speak THINK Is it true? Is it helpful? Does it inspire confidence? Is it necessary?
Integrity is one thing you cannot afford to lose. You can give it away or sell it, but you can’t buy it. Without integrity you become nothing and will have nothing. People of integrity do the right thing even if no one else does, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed …
Trust is a tremendous asset and distrust an enormous liability yet time
Why is it that the shade of a lie looks so different to the person lied to than the liar? People who lie, sometimes for personal advantage (including avoiding an unpleasant confrontation) and other times to protect the feelings of the person lied to, tend to see their falsehood in shades of white. People lied to tend to see the …
The moral significance and real life impact of lies embedded in the concept of trust. Your ability to generate and sustain trust is not dependent on the frequency of lying but the capacity of the lie to damage or destroy trust. The best liars hardly ever lie, not because they are more honest but because they are more clever. They …
Agree or disagree? “In today’s society, one has to lie or cheat at least occasionally in order to succeed.” This is a fundamental and revealing question on our surveys about personal ethics and integrity. Most interesting is that the level of cynicism is closely related to age. In an online survey on integrity (with 16,000 responses) we found that 43 …
So-called “little white lies” are not so little. Anytime someone discovers that you lied to them, for whatever reason, they ask themselves., “What else has he lied to me about?” And this seed of doubt can grow big enough to destroy trust. The ultimate test
Guard your integrity. It is the foundation of your character and reputation. The temptations to smooth out your life by looking the other way, lying just a little and making false excuses, are plentiful and powerful but the damage they do to your integrity may be permanent. Just as teenagers sometimes jeopardize their opportunity for a good life by a
Last week, the sports world lost one of its giants. A man who made his imprint not only on his team and his sport, but on those who worked with him and for him. Jerry Buss, the people that knew him best called him Dr. Buss, died at the age of 80 leaving behind an army of admirers. Buss was not …
It’s hard to be too critical of Lance Armstrong – he not only cheated his way to fame, he bullied others and betrayed millions who believed in his self-righteous claims that he was an innocent man being persecuted by jealous enemies. His confession was not an expression of genuine remorse, but another cynical effort to choose the lesser of two …
Trust Across America has named Michael Josephson one of the 100 Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior for 2013. Also on the list is Josephson Institute Board of Governors member Roger Bolton, who is president of the Arthur W. Page Society. Trust Across America researches and seeks to enhance the trustworthiness of organizations in the United States. It publishes this list of …
What We Need to Teach Kids and Teachers: “Any job worth doing is worth doing well. And any job done well is worth doing.” – Michael Josephson The Common Core and Partnership for the 21st Century tell educators that their main job is to prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace.There are lots of qualities involved in such …
Several years ago, Josephson Institute edited a book of 41 essays called The Power of Character. Among the accomplished and interesting contributors was John Naber, who won four gold medals and one silver medal in swimming at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, setting four world records in the process. Now, with the London Games in full swing, we are pleased to …
This is Michael Josephson with something to think about. Chad and three of his friends were college seniors and they all had to take an important physics exam on Monday. Chad persuaded his buddies to take a weekend trip several hundred miles away to go to a rock concert. They all agreed they would study in the car driving there …
Mallory Holtman, the first baseman for her college softball team, had no idea she was about to make a choice that would change her life. During a game that could determine the conference championship, Sara Tucholsky, a player for the other team, hit the ball over the center field fence. Sara was only 5’2”, had had only three hits all …
