WHERE’S ROCKET NOW?
Episode 1: Firewalking
Ithaca, N.Y.

Anyone can walk on fire — really! It doesn’t even hurt all that much. The secret is taking slow, steady steps that distribute weight across the entire foot. That’s the lesson firewalking guru Tony Simons teaches at his hot-footed workshops in Ithaca. It may sound like ninja training, but Simons is a peace-loving professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University in town. Instead of kicking butt, his how-tos are about overcoming the fears that hold us back in life. After all, if you can stroll barefoot across flaming coals, you can certainly ask the boss for a raise.

Watch 4-minute Video:
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/08/01/080111-news-raa-episode1-1-2/

http://www.trustacrossamerica.com/blog/?p=205

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. Are the leaders of my firm focusing on the quick buck to keep shareholders happy or are they interested in building a long term future? Richard Fuld, ex-CEO of Lehman Brothers, earned half a billion dollars in cash between 2000 and 2008. Lehman is now bankrupt, leaving many employees with empty retirement accounts.

The main point of this book, if I’m allowed to oversimplify, is that companies must build their integrity, protect it at every turn, and, in summary, “do what you say they will do” for their people. The integrity dividend refers to how keeping your word as a leader can positively impact the bottom line. Leaders who are trusted, often get the most performance out of their employees.

I worked at a very large defense contractor for the first three years of my nascent career. Every single year (2003-2006) I enjoyed a 4% raise and was told that “raises wouldn’t be good this year,” by my manager. I know I wasn’t a rock star (I wasn’t a bum either, I won my fair share of monetary performance-based awards), I didn’t put in 60-80 hours a week, I wasn’t on high profile projects, and I didn’t expect rock star raises. I was satisfied with my 4% raise but hearing “raises wouldn’t be good this year” bothered me.

When you couple that with my belief that my manager was wholly unqualified to either manage or lead (and put in charge because of nepotism), you can see how I was distrustful of management. I worked my 40 hours, took advantage of education reimbursement, and left at the first opportunity. I wasn’t alone. The company used 20% attrition rate for our age group (within 5 years of graduation) but based on memory, about 33% of people hired in the three years I was employed there had left.

The Integrity Dividend, in part, talks to that point. Since I, and many others, didn’t trust management (the CEO got like a 20% raise each year), I didn’t kill myself for them. For a company to say, in a time of war when defense spending is going through the roof, that raises won’t be good seems disingenuous. The next company I worked at, a consulting firm, was much different. While I didn’t report, in the management chain, to the people I worked for, I trusted them. They didn’t BS me and tell me some line out of a management book. I had a couple 50 hour and 60 hours weeks there, near delivery times, and I had no problem working them. I trusted that management would take care of me because they were transparent and followed their word.

That’s the integrity dividend Simons talks about. If you’re in a leadership or management position, check out this book. I’m sure you can respect the fact that trust, not money, is the most valuable currency available in an organization.

http://www.iconocast.com/00023/Z5/News6.htm

Full Story

The Integrity Dividend
By Tony Simons
Jossey-Bass © 2008, 244 pages, $27.95
(ISBN 978-0-470-18856-7)

When Stan Myers (now SEMI president/CEO) was CEO of Mitsubishi Silicon America, he decided to move the R&D department from San Francisco to Salem, OR. As many employees didn’t wish to relocate, he offered a retention bonus to those staying the full eight months until the move and helping to recruit and train their replacements. Those leaving prior to the move got only their severance package.  One employee, Alan, got another job early and left, but never received his severance of several thousand dollars. Almost a year later, Myers found out about the oversight. Rather than letting it go, he personally delivered the check to Alan at his new job. Fifteen years later, Myers received an engraved iPod Nano from Alan, now involved in an electronics startup, as a thank-you.

Alan remembered Myers’ gesture long after the fact because Myers went out of the way to keep his commitment to a former employee.

Theory Into Practice

What Myers did, as well as its long-term result, is the core basis of Tony Simon’s new book The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word. Leaders are challenged to seamlessly maintain their values and keep their promises.

The days of “Do as I say, not as I do” are over. Simons’ basic four-step formula outlines how managers who keep their word generate deeper employee commitment,which in turn causes lower turnover and superior customer service. This ultimately leads to higher profitability. To underscore his point, Simons held focus groups, looked at operational and financial sheets, and interviewed a total of several thousand employees and executives in all types of industries, from hotel chains to investment firms to airline catering companies.

Internalize, Then Externalize

A critical element of behavioral integrity, Simons notes, is to create trust and credibility among employees. “A perception of integrity, like trust, is typically slow to build and quick to fall,” Simons says. To create the needed trust factor involves work. Employees constantly evaluate their bosses’ integrity on many levels. Some of the key factors are following through on all promises, exhibiting true caring about employees and acknowledging uncertainty. Simons also mentions the idea of reducing one’s values to an essential
minimum, then sticking to them on a constant basis.

Personalize It

Another element Simons talks about is making behavioral integrity a personal discipline. Managers must teach themselves how and what tasks to delegate and how to handle disagreement; commit to honor all commitments; and learn how to admit mistakes and apologize when necessary.He admits up front that some or all of these may be awkward and uncomfortable at first, but they must be accomplished in order to maintain integrity.

Challenging but Not Impossible

Upon first getting into The Integrity Dividend, some readers may feel it’s the kind of book that dresses up basic common sense as a business thesis. But once past the first chapter, Simons makes it clear that there is more substance. Sure, encouraging employees’ trust is something we’ve all heard about before, but it’s done in a way here that explains, in easy-to-digest examples, that integrity goes beyond a simple reputation; it must penetrate all aspects of a company in order for it to have the desired effect on employees.

By taking the time to foster employees’ faith, a better and more profitable organization is almost guaranteed.

www.barrysilverstein.com/articles/speedreviews0109.pdf

January 2009

The Integrity Dividend:
Leading by the Power of Your Word

By Tony Simons

(Jossey-Bass, 256 pp., $27.95)

While many books have been written on effective leadership and integrity in the workplace, few have been able to measure the impact that such management has yielded on the bottom line—until now.

A recent study of the consequences and dollar significance of behavioral integrity in the hotel industry reports that employees’ sense of their supervisor’s strong behavioral integrity might be a more important performance driver than employee satisfaction, sense of trust, commitment, or feelings of fairness.

Author Tony Simons explains how behavioral integrity—or the ability to keep one’s promises and show the values one possesses, while being perceived by others as doing so—“is a cornerstone on which trust and leadership must be built.”

Simon[sic] describes how leaders can manage their behavioral integrity by promising less and talking fewer values. Leaders should also openly acknowledge their limits and uncertainty, embrace conflict, and communicate their promises clearly. Finally, leaders can empower others toward performance excellence by publicly defining behavioral integrity, linking behavioral values metrics to financial metrics, and encouraging accountability.

Each chapter concludes with a summary of main concepts, as well as ideas to consider and apply. The book also contains a self-assessment and a survey for others to complete regarding the reader’s promise-keeping abilities.

Ann Pace

http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2009/Jan/0901_Books.htm

December 31, 2008

Integrity Pays Off

Leaders Who Keep Their Word Enhance The Bottom Line

It seems like common sense that the integrity of leaders is key to their success and the financial success of their companies.

But no one has ever proved that this is true.  In his new book, The Integrity Dividend (Jossey-Bass, October 2008), Tony Simons, reveals the results of an in-depth study he did with thousands of employees at a U. S. hotel chain.

Simons has 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 and superior customer service  which in turn results in higher profitability. “Leaders’ consistency between word and action supports employee trust and gives them clear direction,” he explains.  “It promotes engagement of employees hearts in their work, which leads to a host of discretionary contributions, from enhanced initiative to problem solving to customer service. It trickles down through the organization to create a leadership culture of integrity . . . Behavioral integrity also increases the strength and efficiency of relationships with customers, suppliers, and unions.”  All of these improvements can be expected to show up on the bottom line as “the integrity dividend.”

Yet, keeping one’s word and practicing one’s stated values on a daily basis is extremely difficult to do.  For most managers, real life interferes and managers unwittingly undermine their own credibility.  In the book, Simons explains the factors that drive  and impede  integrity, including mission statements (as often a minus as a plus), company cultures, leadership hierarchies, communication habits, and personal discipline.

Simons points out that not only must leaders be credible, but they must also be seen as such.  Employees bring their own “baggage” of expectations and past hurts to the task of interpreting their boss’ actions.  Unfortunately, when employees misunderstand their boss’ request, they typically blame . . . the boss.  Therefore communication has to be ultra clear.  “When you take the subjectivity of perception into account, the leader’s already challenging task of maintaining credibility is made all the more difficult,” says Simons.  The book includes many exercises that managers can use to analyze their own levels of integrity; recognize how they are perceived by those around them; and enhance the power of their word.

“Preserving credibility and maintaining people’s sense that you live by your word means avoiding casual overpromises and respecting the weight of your words.  It means openly acknowledging your uncertainty, the limits to your ability, and other awkward truths . . . Communicating this way is not automatic for most people.  It has to be learned and practiced,” writes Simons.

Some people say that talk is cheap.  But when it comes to leadership, talk can be very expensive.  When leaders or managers speak and then do not “walk their talk,” it costs them credibility.  And credibility makes or breaks companies.

Contributed by: Information Strategies, Inc.

http://www.snohomishtimes.com/snohomishNEWS.cfm?inc=story&newsID=230

Careerbright Blog

December 8, 2008

How many times have you bought a product on someone’s recommendation? Or just because you knew that the designer was well known and respected in his/her field?  If you have two job offers offering you the same money and responsibilities but one company is an industry leader whereas the other is just starting off; what are the odds that you would be going for the one which is more respected or known?

And to say it in few words, WE BUY FROM THOSE WE TRUST. To build trust you must be dependable, you must display authenticity be true to your words; and the book review that follows discusses some of these every issues how to practice integrity with customers, suppliers and organized labor and other leadership trust building skills a leader needs at the corporate workplace.

THE INTEGRITY DIVIDEND by Tony Simons is one such book that you would love to add to your leadership collection. Tony is an expert on trust in the workplace and in his book, Simons reveals the results of an in-depth study he did with thousands of employees at a U.S. hotel chain, proving that the integrity of leaders is key to their success and the financial success of their companies.

Simons has 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 and superior customer service – which in turn results in higher profitability.

Jim Kouzes in his wonderful foreword nails the truth behind a great and respected leader, he says: when you are credible you do what you say you will do. DWYSYWD. It’s the most important leadership lesson you will ever learn.

The book brings together lessons that we all need to take back home on leadership on combining personal integrity, discipline and accountability that ultimately defines how dependable and respected leader you are or can be.

Simons says; The integrity dividend is power. When you and others know that you live by your word, you become able to shape the world around you in surprising ways. People cooperate better, even if they do no know you well.

What I loved about the book was the summary at the end of each chapter; Simons puts together the main points one must consider or question which forces one to think and self-assess and then brings forwards some points to act on to reinforce your practice into well defined actions.

So why must you read this book?
If you are a CEO, manager, leader, entrepreneur, or aspiring to be one of these one day then this book would be a good read to strengthen the basic principles of working ethically and through simple examples throughout the book you will see how you can solve the day to day problems at the workplace. Simons rightfully says “Building habits of integrity is a challenge. I invite you to take it on, because it pays a dividend.”

http://careerbright.blogspot.com/

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 hull”—no gaps between words and actions. Morality is important, to be sure. But our work focuses not so much on the content of one’s values as on how well one lives them. We find that when people start living by their word, the rest follows.

Reliably living by one’s word is crucial for leadership, and for almost any business or personal relationship. Managers. Salespeople. Spouses. Nothing happens without a reliable word. It is fundamental.

By excluding morality from the definition of integrity, we make the subject discussable. Nobody describes themselves as having low integrity, of course, but most of us can allow that there are times when we fail to keep our word. We intuitively recognize that getting better at keeping our word will enhance effectiveness and credibility.

Creating Credibility

We link integrity to the bottom line. Most integrity programs focus on compliance as a way to stay out of legal trouble. We think that approach sets the integrity bar too low, and it gives integrity a negative frame or emotional tone. We draw on scientific research linking integrity to the bottom line. Surveys of more than 6,800 employees at 76 same-branded hotels found that tiny differences in employee perceptions of how well their managers live by their word translate to large differences in bottom-line profitability. These differences are measurable—for the average employee rating of a single hotel, 1/4 point on a 10-point scale translates to roughly $250,000 per year, or 2.5 percent of revenues. We call this impact the integrity dividend.

This link allows us to approach the issue in a hard-bitten, practical way: It is not about being nice, creating a nice place to work, living with yourself, or being ethical. It is about managing your credibility so you can be more effective. This practical orientation allows us to reach the people who think about results first.

We bring the issue into the here and now. We begin our sessions with a promise—and, given the subject, it is one that people will implicitly expect anyway. We offer that we will be an example of behavioral integrity, we will do as we say, walk our talk. Nothing will blow credibility faster, when you are talking about living by your word, than starting a session late.

We ask workshop participants to point out anything that falls short of that promise, and we get them to agree. Then we promise to do the same for them. This process creates a non-threatening contract holding each other to integrity.

During our time together, should anyone point anything out, we thank them and gracefully apologize. Afterwards, we ask them if we became less of a person for having made a mistake and apologized. They usually say no. This is an interesting starting point, since most executives still believe that to admit a mistake or apologize diminishes their power and status.

Admitting to slips in integrity and sincerely apologizing strangely enhances the reputation for integrity. Also, a discussion of apologizing eases the discomfort participants feel as they consider raising their standards of promise-keeping and they start to recognize the many ways all of us fall short. The key is in the striving and the recovery.

The argument goes like this:

(1) People notice how consistently you keep your word.
(2) It deeply affects your ability to influence them.
(3) 1 and 2 above are not going to change.
(4) Sometimes it is necessary to break a promise or to trade off one espoused value for another.
(5) Don’t lose heart about it, or condemn yourself over it—acknowledge it openly and make a new commitment.

This last point is absolutely critical, as maintaining integrity requires sustained attention and energy. Self-abuse over the inevitable stumbles drains energy and so undermines the change effort. A successful person is someone who cleans up when they make a mess and keeps striving. There is no place for drama in an effective apology.

We frame it positively. When a trainer starts pointing out the many ways in which people violate their word, workshop participants can get defensive. They may voice the defensiveness openly, or, more often, they will quietly switch off. They buy the basic message, but it makes them feel so bad that they do not want to keep thinking about it. The danger is not so much one of despair as it is one of an instinctive turn away from uncomfortable topics.

What we do is acknowledge the discomfort—and then point out that it is universal. Everyone blows their word, and how you respond is what determines champions. As with sports and everything else—everyone fails sometimes, but the winners pick themselves up and try harder. Further, since the challenges are so common, extraordinary integrity represents an opportunity for distinctive advantage over the competition. It is not about how to avoid the shame of failing to live up to your moral ideal—it is about how to excel at a practical and fundamental leadership (or sales) tool. Cleaning up your messes—without drama or self-flagellation—is a key part of the tool. Participants should walk out pensive, but excited at the opportunity before them.

We raise awareness. Everybody likes to think of themselves as a person of integrity. Most of us do not recognize those places where feet and mouth point in very different directions. A great starting point for a discussion of the awareness of integrity, or its lack, is what we call the Executive Dichotomy. We ask participants, “What is the most important thing in life?” Most will say family. Then we ask them about their time allocation, and what they do when they face a conflict between the two—say, a kid’s recital and a major report due at work. We find many respond as though work were their top priority. This recognition will start a lively discussion and bring great awareness, usually accompanied by humor.

Integrity Allocation

It is worth spending some time on this dichotomy. Ask questions that allow people to sidle up to their own shortcomings:

• Have you noticed people who are more honest in some situations than in others?

• Notice the places where you yourself are more honest and less honest. (Assure them they don’t have to share these insights out loud unless they want to).

• Are you perhaps more inclined to keep your word to your boss than honor a promise made to your five year old?

• How about the promises you make to yourself? New Year’s resolutions? Most of us treat these as least important of all—when a good case can be made that they are the most important.

We sometimes allow up to 20 minutes in solitude outside of the room for reflection on one or more of these questions with a request that each person comes back with a story to share—perhaps where they have done well and feel proud of how they behaved.

These questions often lead to a broader discussion of how emotions can undermine integrity. The desire to be liked or even feared can lead a person to behave in ways other than they would espouse. A desire to be kind can lead to small lies from a person who would say honesty was the most important value in a relationship: “Does my bottom look big in this?” becomes a minefield for the scrupulously honest person. Performance appraisals come up as a place where most managers feel their integrity tested. Many managers compromise in the face of the challenge, and as a result engage the task with fear and loathing. Being honest requires greater skill than small deceit, but it pays off in the quality and effectiveness of relationships.

Commiting to Integrity

We ask for a commitment. Having raised awareness of integrity challenges, we ask participants to identify at least one key area for improvement. The next stage is to make a commitment to change that one area.

Commitments made in front of others are somehow easier to keep than those we make in private. So we ask people to make a public commitment to change at least one thing, something for which they are prepared to be held accountable. We take time to emphasize what commitment really means. When people feel good, are focussed on integrity, and away from their daily lives, they will commit to things easily. We ask them to consider in advance the times it will be difficult, when they have to get up early on a cold winter morning to have that run before work or tell their team they are about to lose their bonuses for the year or when they have to leave the meeting their boss expects them to attend, so they can be at their child’s school play. Commitment means doing the thing you said you’d do, long after the mood in which you said it has left you. Often, to make a commitment that you can guarantee, you have to back up and make it a bit more conservative. For example, say you will exercise four or five days a week, not seven.

We evoke the idea of discipline. Commitment needs to be backed up with discipline. We have come to see discipline as an unpleasant word, often associated with punishment. Actually, it has the same root as disciple; it means to learn. Ask people to consider the times they have used self-discipline to achieve a goal. Integrity is no different. It happens by inches, not all at once. Each decision for integrity enables the next bigger decision, thus beginning a virtuous cycle.

Encourage them to form accountability partnerships or buddy up with someone who will help to keep them on track, perhaps someone with a similar commitment. Get them to commit to communicating once or more each week, to hold each other accountable, and to provide support and encouragement.

Sharing their commitment to integrity with another person may help them overcome challenges. If the difficulty is family-work balance, for example, they might want to include their partner in the conversation.

The most important step of all is deciding to make the change. It is a decision that must be made anew each moment of each day. The key, then, is to help participants set up reminders and supports for making that decision, over and over again.

In essence, we approach the profound issue of integrity in a simple manner that works. To cut through cynicism, we justify the work based on measurable bottom-line results. We strip out the moralizing and shaming aspects of integrity by our term definitions. We frame the issue positively, and bring it into the here and now. We raise awareness of common dilemmas, ask for a specific commitment, and reinforce the commitment with the idea of discipline. When you treat integrity like any other skill, albeit one of supreme importance, it becomes discussable, teachable, and learnable.

Tony Simons is a professor of management at Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, author of “The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word,” and a principal speaker and consultant for IntegrityDividend.com. Heather Allen is vice president of European Operations for IntegrityDividend.com. To learn more, visit www.integritydividend.com.

http://www.trainingmag.com/msg/content_display/publications/e3i25cba8ba761bcf124199d8c0499451a0

“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.

“Leaders’ consistency between word and action supports employee trust and gives them clear direction,” Simons said. “It promotes engagement of employees’ hearts in their work, which leads to a host of discretionary contributions, from enhanced initiative to problem solving to customer service … Behavioral integrity also increases the strength and efficiency of relationships with customers, suppliers and unions.”

Things that get in the way of managers keeping their word include company culture, leadership hierarchies, communication habits, personal discipline and even the ubiquitous mission statement. Simons writes that leaders must not only be credible, but they must also be seen as such. Employees bring expectations and past hurts to their interpretation of employers’ actions. Communication must be perfectly clear.”

Questions for reflection:

1. How do I keep my agreements reliably?
2. How do my actions match my words?
3. How do I model integrity for the children in my life?
4. How will I stay strong with integrity when times get tough?

In this time of uncertainty in the world’s economy, how many problems can be attributed to lack of integrity? The average person feels betrayed by leaders of financial institutions and government leaders, by politicians who say one thing and do another. How does each of us act when we are under pressure? Do we stand on our integrity, do we keep our word to our children, our students, ourselves? What do we do when no one is looking? We may not be able to count on others, but we can always stand in our integrity.

http://virtuestraining.com/virtue/Integrity