Integrity and Freedom: Why Character Still Defines True Leadership

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in WWII, President of Columbia University, President of the United States, once wrote: “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity… Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” There is a secret.

What Eisenhower knew is that respect is earned, never given, and that the first element of respect is integrity. He knew people are smart and responsive. If you show integrity, people admire it, follow it, and start to cultivate it within themselves, which leads to more of it.

The integrity of which Eisenhower spoke, the bit we most admire, comes from within. It is intuitive; it becomes intuitive over time. It is not about following a book, but being the book; not about seeking outward approval but finding inward approval, consistency with conscience.

As Albert Camus wrote, the idea is this: “Integrity has no need of rules.”  In other words, if we promise ourselves to live by a certain standard, we become the judge. We know if we are at the set standard or missing it, need to refocus, up our game, and stay on top of it.

Integrity is like that, a constant angel on our shoulder, reminding us who we are, that we are only who we are if we are – that is, we must constantly recommit to living to the standard.

Wrote one of my favorite New England authors and “transcendentalists,” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nothing is at last sacred, but the integrity of your own mind.”

Question: Have we got what Eisenhower, Camus, and Emerson argue is essential to human happiness and leadership - what keeps us balanced? An ability to focus on setting and holding high standards, caring and cultivating within ourselves the possible? With effort … yes.

Whether we are talking about individual integrity, or the integrity of a society – on which all depends – the objective is to envision, believe, and reach constantly higher, expect more of ourselves.

As a society, we must expect more of leaders. When things seem to be slipping, we must speak up, step up, demand more, and assert rights that go back to insisting on integrity. Jefferson wrote, “Truth is the only solid foundation for liberty.” By truth, he meant integrity.

Washington felt the same, identifying the integrity of a person and society as centered on understanding truth and correcting for it. “Truth will ultimately prevail where pains…are taken to bring it to light.”

Bottom line: Personal integrity is important, but so is society’s integrity – truthfulness with and to itself. This involves willingness to demand honesty of leadership. Always a skunk at the garden party, John Adams wrote: “A government built on lies will inevitably lead to oppression of its people.”  Demanding integrity is required…for freedom. That’s the secret.