What it takes.

Integrity.

It is absolutely crucial to being a leader. Leaders are tasked with the responsibility of guiding people and directing them to where they should go, whether it be in business, the community, families, church, or wherever.

As a leader people rely on you and trust you to lead them down the correct path and to protect them. A leader of integrity keeps that trust from his or her followers and will not allow anything to lead them off the path that was set.

For a leader to lead others well he first has to lead himself well. A leader knows the importance of not compromising and understands that if he does compromise on his beliefs and the beliefs of the people he his leading, he is hurting not only himself, but the people he is leading also.

Integrity is never forsaking your beliefs and the beliefs of the people that you are leading. Never compromise and never lead by skill. Lead by character and integrity. People will follow because they trust you to respect them.

It won’t always be easy, and you won’t always succeed 100%. But persevere through adversity and no matter how much you want to compromise…don’t. The minute that we lose sight of protecting our own integrity and character is the minute that we lose sight of protecting and directing and leading those following.

A leader of integrity understands that he or she will make mistakes. They don’t try to hide them, or gloss over them, but rather they admit them and accept the consequences of their mistake. This builds trust.

Integrity doesn’t mean always being perfect. It means that no matter what you will do the right thing, even if doing the right thing is admitting that you did the wrong thing.

“A life lived with integrity – even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shinning star in whose light others may follow in the years to come.” – Denis Waitley