14 Mar Integrity
I recently challenged my leadership team to examine our business through the lens of integrity. It is something I believe every business leader needs to do from time to time. To be clear, I have an incredible team, whose integrity is second to none. But that doesn’t mean our company is not due a gut-check.
I started out by asking my team what integrity means. The answers were: Honesty. Doing the right thing when no one is looking. Being a person of your word.
I followed that question by asking if we expect others to be people of integrity. The answers were: Expect, yes, but disappointed when they are not. Expect yes and hope for it.
My next question was how we can be a company of integrity. Answers: Do the right thing 100% of the time. Delivery on what we say we are going to do. Being careful how we represent who we are to clients. Owning up to our shortcomings.
Great answers. But my next question was the hardest. Are we a company that is 100% true to our integrity? The answers were honest: No, we have not always delivered on fulfillment 100% of the time. At times we have struggled to keep our distribution numbers up to date. Our focus is getting better.
My final question was what we can do to improve. Answers: Narrow down to what we excel at with our clients. Reexamine to make sure we are accurately communicating what we offer clients. Double check our distribution numbers and push out updates to advertisers.
In truth, every company can work at their integrity. It is so easy to get lost in the weeds that you start to communicate something different than what your company offers.
It might seem strange that I share this internal discussion I had with my leadership team, but I believe it is important to be transparent. In truth, every company can work at their integrity. It is so easy to get lost in the weeds that you start to communicate something different than what your company offers. Salespeople in the field want to please clients and might be tempted to commit to something the company can’t fulfill. Has that ever happened to you?
Take a moment this week to examine the integrity of your company or department. Ask the hard questions; it is the only way to improve your business.
Scott Miller is the CEO of Centerpost Media, host of the Create. Build. Manage. show (seen on BizTV, heard on BizTalkRadio, and available wherever you listen to podcasts,) and a member of the Forbes Agency Council, Entrepreneur Leadership Network, and Dallas Business Journal Leadership Trust. You can find Scott on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter via “@scottmillerceo” or on LinkedIn via “@scottmillermedia.” Centerpost Media is a content marketing agency with a vision to help every business they encounter with their media needs by providing outstanding quality, service and value. Centerpost Media is the parent company to BizTV, BizTalkRadio, BizTalkPodcasts and Bizvod.