Business Books
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The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word By Tony Simons Jossey-Bass; 244 pages
Guys who don’t keep their word finish last, says the author, a professor of management at Cornell. Besides being the right thing to do, keeping your promises and living up to the values you espouse are good for the bottom line, he argues. Why? Because deeper employee commitment leads to lower turnover and superior customer service. To test his thesis, Simons studied 76 Holiday Inn franchises and interviewed some 100 successful executives in various fields. Says the author: “The credibility of leaders makes or breaks companies.”
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1853307,00.html
The Integrity Dividend by Tony Simons
posted at bargaineering.com:
The first thing I do when I get a book is flip open to the inside flap of the dust cover and read the summary. I like to get a fifteen second feel for the book before I dive right in.
The first line on the dust jacket read: “Corporate and government scandals continue to deepen our mistrust of leaders.” Tony Simons, author of the The Integrity Dividend and an associate professor of management and organizational behavior at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, hit the nail on the head with that line. While the book was probably influenced by the Enron and similar scandals, corporate greed in financial companies and weak governmental oversight (or straight up looking the other way) the last five or ten years has combined to create an economic maelstrom the likes of which haven’t been seen in decades. Add it all together and you get an environment where employees may be distrustful of their management. Read more »
The Integrity Imperative
Oct 9, 2008
You can’t train for integrity…or can you? A characteristic you thought was ingrained, or hopeless to cultivate, might just be able to be learned.
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By Tony Simons and Heather Allen
Integrity is an element of character, isn’t it? It is something a person has, or they do not. They learned it from their parents, or they didn’t. Right? That is not what we find. We train for integrity, and we make an impact.
We train managers in how to maximize their credibility, and thereby their effectiveness, by visibly living by their word. By keeping promises. By living out the values they speak of. By increasing their personal integrity.
Many trainers get frustrated in their efforts to shift ethical behavior. We define integrity a little differently than the dictionary does. Webster’s online dictionary defines integrity as “An unreduced or unbroken completeness or totality [or] moral soundness.” We strip out the moral aspect of integrity, to look only at the “wholeness” or alignment of words and actions. We focus on seamlessness, as in “the integrity of a boat Read more »
Integrity as an Organizational Foundation — Nu Leadership Series
in
”Wealth in the new regime flows directly from innovation, not optimization; that is, wealth is not gained by perfecting the known, but by imperfectly seizing the unknown.” Kevin Kelly
What has caused the lack of trust among followers related to institutional leaders? We need to start with the basics. Leaders need more integrity. Simons maintains that the trust of subordinates is widely recognized as critical component for high performance organizations. In organizational culture, leaders then find themselves as institutional advocates; they influence how followers perceive organizational values. Read more »
A Virtues Moment: Integrity
“Integrity is standing up for what we believe is right. We keep faith with our ideals and live by our deepest values. We keep our agreements reliably. Our actions match our words. We strive to balance impeccable integrity and unfailing tenderness for others and ourselves. We cherish the challenge of doing the right thing in all circumstances. We give excellence to everything we undertake. We live by our personal covenant.”
-excerpted with permission from Virtues Reflection Cards by Linda Kavelin Popov. http://virtuestraining.com/24_products
“Doing what you say you will do makes your business more money. That’s a central thesis of the new book “The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word” (Jossey-Bass, 2008), by Tony Simons, a faculty member in Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration.
Simons, an associate professor of management and organizational behavior, conducted an in-depth study with thousands of employees at a U.S. hotel chain. His book includes excerpts from interviews with dozens of executives from the hospitality, high-tech manufacturing, financial services, waste disposal and health-care industries. Simons found that employees who believe that their managers can be counted on to keep their word show deeper commitment to the business, leading to lower employee turnover, superior customer service and higher profitability. Read more »
Integrity Imperative
Oct 9, 2008
You can’t train for integrity…or can you? A characteristic you thought was ingrained, or hopeless to cultivate, might just be able to be learned.
|
By Tony Simons and Heather Allen
Integrity is an element of character, isn’t it? It is something a person has, or they do not. They learned it from their parents, or they didn’t. Right? That is not what we find. We train for integrity, and we make an impact.
We train managers in how to maximize their credibility, and thereby their effectiveness, by visibly living by their word. By keeping promises. By living out the values they speak of. By increasing their personal integrity.
Many trainers get frustrated in their efforts to shift ethical behavior. We define integrity a little differently than the dictionary does. Webster’s online dictionary defines integrity as “An unreduced or unbroken completeness or totality [or] moral soundness.” We strip out the moral aspect of integrity, to look only at the “wholeness” or alignment of words and actions. We focus on seamlessness, as in “the integrity of a boat Read more »
Why Shoot Straight in a Crooked World??
Posted by Marshall Goldsmith on October 6, 2008 11:13 AM
originally posted at
and 
and 
and 
This week’s question for Ask the Coach:
With the crazy economy, the up-and-down stock market, the layoffs, buyouts, and takeovers, I’d like to know: What’s the good in being good?
A lot of people are discouraged right now. Many people have lost, or are in fear of losing, their homes, their jobs, and their retirement funds. At the same time, it has been a challenge to work together toward a common solution due to a general lack of trust and a lot of finger pointing. I asked Dr. Tony Simons, professor and noted author of The Integrity Dividend, to share his answer to this question.
Cornell Professor Tallies the Value of Integrity
Simons Study Finds ‘Integrity Dividend’ in Hotel Industry.
A detailed study of labor-management interactions in a United States hotel chain has demonstrated the value of telling the truth. The results of the study are found in a new book, The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word, by Tony Simons. Simons is an associate professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, and is a research fellow with the Center for Hospitality Research. The book is available from all popular book sellers, or through the author at www.integritydividend.com.
Why shoot straight if the world is crooked?
Posted by Marshall Goldsmith on October 6, 2008 11:13 AM
originally posted at
and
and
and
This week’s question for Ask the Coach:
With the crazy economy, the up-and-down stock market, the layoffs, buyouts, and takeovers, I’d like to know: What’s the good in being good?
A lot of people are discouraged right now. Many people have lost, or are in fear of losing, their homes, their jobs, and their retirement funds. At the same time, it has been a challenge to work together toward a common solution due to a general lack of trust and a lot of finger pointing. I asked Dr. Tony Simons, professor and noted author of The Integrity Dividend, to share his answer to this question.
Why Shoot Straight in a Crooked World?
Posted by Marshall Goldsmith on October 6, 2008 11:13 AM
originally posted at
and
and
This week’s question for Ask the Coach:
With the crazy economy, the up-and-down stock market, the layoffs, buyouts, and takeovers, I’d like to know: What’s the good in being good?
A lot of people are discouraged right now. Many people have lost, or are in fear of losing, their homes, their jobs, and their retirement funds. At the same time, it has been a challenge to work together toward a common solution due to a general lack of trust and a lot of finger pointing. I asked Dr. Tony Simons, professor and noted author of The Integrity Dividend, to share his answer to this question.
MG: Tony, you’ve been doing some interesting research about the global trust/deceit level. Would you share some of it with us?
TS: Of course, Marshall.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal commissioned a global survey on deceit. They surveyed more than 20,000 people in 19 countries, asking whether cheating in business transactions is more or less common that it was ten years ago. Sixty-five % of Americans said it is more common; 70% agreed it is “a real problem.” The majority of respondents across the globe said cheating is more common now than ten years ago.
MG: Why do you think that cheating is seen as so prevalent?
