Is It Possible to Restore a Leader’s Integrity and Honesty?

April 20, 2023

A colleague and I were discussing if it was possible to recover from being seen as possessing a significant flaw in honesty and integrity. We identified various people who had tried to improve their honesty and integrity and seemed to make some progress, but for most people, this seemed to be a pit from which there was no escape.

We decided to look at the data. First, we sought to understand if it was even possible. Was there evidence that it frequently happened? Second, we wanted to know what those who succeeded at changing actually did.

The Research on Honesty and Integrity

We assembled a dataset of 6,025 leaders who participated in 360-degree assessments with feedback from their managers, peers, direct reports, and other raters. In this case, each leader did an initial assessment (pre-test) and then, after 18 to 24 months, received a second assessment (post-test).

We identified 546 leaders with a potentially fatal flaw in the honesty and integrity competency. This is defined by that person scoring at or below the 10th percentile when assessed by others. We then compared each leader’s pre-test to their post-test results. The results showed

  • 15% of the leaders were rated more poorly in their post-test results,
  • 64% made a slight positive change
  • 12% made moderate improvement, moving from the lowest decile to the 44th percentile
  • 9% significantly changed from the bottom decile to the 75th

Was the pit too deep to escape? The resounding answer is “NO.” Digging yourself out of a very deep hole is possible, but it is not easy. Nevertheless, 21% of the leaders made meaningful and substantial improvements.

In the graph below, we show the results for each group.

Leaders Honesty and Integrity

Listen to Episode 55: The Value of Honesty, The 90th Percentile: An Unconventional Leadership Podcast. 

How do leaders dig themselves out of the pit?

Looking at the post-test results, we compared those leaders with moderate and significant improvement to leaders who decreased and only slightly improved on 49 behaviors. While every one of the 49 behaviors showed significant differences, we looked at the behaviors that had the most substantial improvements for insights into the critical behaviors linked to the change.

  1. Following through on commitments. One of the biggest problems with perceptions of dishonesty comes from a person saying they will do something they fail to do. These are often little things, such as when people pass you in the hall and say, “Will you send me the XYZ report.” You reply, “Yes.” Then, you go back to your desk, get distracted with other issues, and never send the report. Many people quickly agree to do things but are slow to deliver or forget altogether.

Be careful about your commitments, write them down, track them, and deliver what you promise. Sometimes people need help completing an assignment, but rather than letting others know, they put it off until the last minute, making their failure to deliver even more problematic. Keep others informed in advance.

  1. Having poor judgment in making important decisions. No one wants to appear to be incompetent. However, people often feel that asking others for advice or input makes them look less competent. Paradoxically, making several poor decisions is what makes us perceive people as incompetent. The surest way to avoid that is to seek the opinions of others. Further, the reality is that asking others for their input and advice makes you look more confident and intelligent.
  2. Cooperating rather than competing with others. Some people at work feel that they are in competition with every other employee and there will only be one winner in the race. Competing with others sets people up as winners or losers; no one wants to be a loser. Cooperating with your colleagues makes them feel that everyone is on the same team and that you have their best interests at heart.
  3. Create an atmosphere of continuous improvement for yourself and others. Demonstrate an interest in improving your effectiveness, learning new skills, and being more effective. Show others that you are working on self-improvement and ask for their help.
  4. Make sure others trust you. Trust is a magic quality that profoundly impacts every other leadership capability. If you try to communicate with another person and they do not trust you, your communication will not be understood or believed. Lack of trust creates friction in the workplace and ultimately slows everything down. You can increase your trust by improving your relationships with others, sharing your expertise, and acting consistently.
  5. Staying in touch with the issues and concerns of others. Having a leader who shows consideration for you and cares about what is happening in your life creates a trusting bond. A leader who is only concerned that you produce your work on time and within budget generates no bond, only a transaction of work for money. Most people want to work with others who care about them and their circumstances.
  6. Communicates regularly, frequently, and well. Keeping others informed is the easiest competency to develop in our research, but it’s one that many need to work on. If I fail to inform you, errors, mistakes, and problems will likely occur. How often do you disagree with others where you insist that you communicated, but they do not remember or understand? The fault is not with them but rather with you. Poor communication causes leaders to misunderstand, make mistakes, generate errors, and break promises.
  7. Regularly ask for feedback and make a diligent effort to improve. Those leaders who regularly ask others for feedback are often the most highly rated leaders. This habit can change your life because others see what you could do to be more effective, but you need to see these things yourself. Ask questions that let others know you want feedback, not compliments. Say something like, “What could I have done to have a more effective meeting” or “How could I have communicated that more clearly?”

This study gives me hope. People can change. People can improve. They are not fixed at six years old, as Sigmund Freud believed. Every person can become more effective. Even the least influential leaders have a choice.

Joe Folkman
Co-founder and President of Zenger Folkman, Author, and Global Expert in Psychometrics and Orgaizational Change