Category Archives: honesty

Moral authority comes from following universal principles

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“Moral authority comes from following universal principles like honesty, integrity, and treating people with respect.”

—Stephen Covey, 20th century American educator, author, businessman, and speaker

Image from Unsplash by Etactics Inc

I looked up the definitions of Moral Authority and Power to see where and how they are being applied in our society.

Here is what I discovered:

Moral Authority is the influence one has based on ethical principles and character, allowing them to inspire or persuade others by appealing to what is right and good. It is internally generated, fragile, and most continuously earned through trust and authentic behavior.

Power, in contrast, often refers to the ability to enforce actions or decisions through formal authority or control over people and resources. It can be granted by position or title, and is more about control than influence.

While power can compel action, moral authority persuades through ethical appeal.

EXERCISE:

How do you react and respond to individuals with moral authority versus power in your personal and professional lives?

What approaches do you find work best to influence or persuade others to follow your lead?

Friday Review: Honesty

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Friday Review: Honesty

Where and when is honesty most important to you? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

 

“Empower me to exercise the authority of honesty, and be a participant in the difficult ordinariness of now.”

 

 

 

“I keep six honest serving men: (They taught me all I knew) Their names were Where and What and When and Why and How and Who.”

 

 

 

 

“Tell a lie once and all your truths become questionable.”

 

 

 

Empower me to exercise the authority of honesty

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“Empower me to exercise the authority of honesty, and be a participant in the difficult ordinariness of now.”

—Ted Loder, Retired Methodist Minister

Image from Unsplash by Marek Studzinski

Before putting pen to paper, I read today’s quote a few dozen times to grasp its depth and significance. After exploring it in detail, I asked myself three questions:

  1. Who is doing the empowering?
  2. How can I better exercise the authority of honesty in my daily efforts?
  3. Where am I a full participant in the difficult ordinariness of now?

EXERCISE:

How can you apply the wisdom of this quote and strengthen your capacity to live a happier, more fulfilling life?

Feel free to reply to this post with your thoughts.

Friday Review: Honesty

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FRIDAY REVIEW: HONESTY

Where and when is honesty most important to you? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

 

“I keep six honest serving men: (They taught me all I knew) Their names were Where and What and When and Why and How and Who.”

 

 

 

“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.”

 

 

 

“Tell a lie once and all your truths become questionable.”

 

 

 

 

“Tell a lie once and all your truths become questionable.”

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“Tell a lie once and all your truths become questionable.”

—Author Unknown

Who are the people in your professional and personal life that you trust implicitly? How do they rate in terms of honesty and integrity?

Alternatively, who are those you do not trust? To what degree do these people stretch the truth, exaggerate, or simply out-and-out lie in order to look good, avoid accountability, or pursue other self-centered objectives?

Trusting relationships are the foundation of strong personal and professional partnerships, and this strength can easily be broken. Once observed, future doubt tends to creep in and undermine what may have taken many years to build.

EXERCISE:

What can and will you do to strengthen, repair, or rebuild the level of trust with those closest to you?

Consider checking out my Trust-o-Meter Assessment for some strategies that may help.

“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.”

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“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.”

—Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States

Image from Unsplash by Marten Newhall

Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, and Founding Father who served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the principle author of the Declaration of Independence and a significant proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights.

Today’s quote points to the importance of personal character, honesty, and integrity in holding each other to the highest standards of personal conduct.

What might Jefferson think about our world today, where, for all intents and purposes, the world really is watching our every move?

EXERCISE:

How pleased and proud are you regarding your personal and professional conduct? Where is there room for higher standards you wish to live by and show the world?

Six Honest Serving Men

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“I keep six honest serving men: (They taught me all I knew) Their names were Where and What and When and Why and How and Who.”

—Rudyard Kipling, 20th Century English Journalist & Poet

Begin a conversation with any of the Six Honest Serving Men from Kipling’s quote and you’re off to a great start in learning something new. You may even develop or nurture a new or existing relationship.

Powerful open-ended questions beginning with one of the Six Honest Serving Men open doors to new knowledge. They also demonstrate a genuine interest in others, which we all relish.

For today, I suggest you direct these probing and door-opening words toward yourself, to see what new worlds of discovery lie within.

EXERCISE:

Ask and answer some of your most important and pressing questions of the day. Then consider asking “What Else?” to see what you can learn by probing deeper than your surface answers.

Inspect what you expect

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“People don’t do what you expect but what you inspect.”

—Louis V. Gerstner Jr., former CEO of IBM

Image of military inspection

Image from Flickr by Jason Pier in DC

How often in your personal or professional worlds do people let you down by making, then not fulfilling, their promises?

Unfulfilled expectations are key reasons for the upsets we experience on a daily basis.

A simple yet highly effective strategy to bolster the odds of promises being fulfilled is to add accountability and direct inspection to the agreements you reach with others.

The knowledge that you or others will actually be checking up and inspecting the efforts and accompanying results almost guarantees the job gets done.

EXERCISE:

Where in either your personal or professional worlds would an “inspect what you expect” strategy dramatically improve the percentage of promises kept, and the results you desire?