‘I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base. . .’ Getting slightly carried away on the campaign trail for the Presidency in 2008, Hillary Clinton used this reference to a trip she took as First Lady to Bosnia in 1996 in order to prove her battle hardened experience. Turns out, it was a bit of an exaggeration and her arrival had been somewhat less dramatic.
The reality was, as old news video footage of the event later confirmed, that she had arrived without incident, accompanied by her then 15-year-old daughter Chelsea, the comedian Sinbad and singer Sheryl Crow. I thought Sinbad’s comments were funny when he later said that Hillary’s description of what actually went on was ridiculous: ‘What kind of President would say, hey, man, I can’t go ’cause I might get shot so I’m going to send my wife…oh…and take a guitar player and a comedian with you‘. Her advisors later admitted she ‘misspoke’ about the incident.
Just like Hillary, we all misspeak on occasion; in fact, research shows that each one of us is prone to uttering the odd white lie every now and again. At that level, it’s not a sign of a lack of values or integrity, but has more to do with our collective propensity towards exaggeration. Actually, the white lie issue reminds me of a charming story about Lillian Carter, the mother of President Carter, or Miss Lillian as she was affectionately known. On one occasion a reporter asked her whether it was really true that her son never lied. She replied, ‘Well, I reckon he might have told a little white lie now and then.’ Seizing on what he thought was an opportunity for a big story – the President lied and what not – the reporter followed up by saying that she had previously said her son never lied and asking her what she actually meant by a ‘white lie’. ‘Well’, replied Miss Lillian, ‘do you remember when you came in this morning and I told you how nice you looked and how glad I was to see you?’
Telling the odd little porky is one thing but lacking values and integrity is quite another matter entirely. Whilst we will all make allowances for the occasional massaging of the truth, an absence of values or lack of integrity is never acceptable in our leaders, be they on the political stage or in the workplace.
The best leaders are always values driven individuals who have high levels of integrity. I wouldn’t like to give the impression that they are all some sort of clones of Mother Theresa, but from what I have seen, their deeply held personal principles do seem to serve as beacons for them, guiding their actions and informing all their decisions. It is this sense of values which drives them to seek proactive co-operation in their dealings with others, both in and outside the organisation, and they recognize the importance of ethical behaviour and demonstrate their values through their leadership style and actions. Clearly, they may not like all of their employees to the same degree but in dealing with them every day their belief in natural justice means that they strive to treat them all equally and fairly.
Effective leaders never blatantly mislead their people either and as they do view their employees as partners, it comes naturally for them to be open and honest with their team members. Even when they cannot give their employees the full story, these leaders are at least honest as to why; their people may not like the answer but they respect the honesty.
Enjoy your day!
