Honesty or Integrity? Are they the same thing? Is one more important than the other? Many people use the terms interchangeably confusing one with the other.

You can be an honest person and have questionable Integrity. Honesty is a part of Integrity, but they are not the same thing.

Many people believe that if they are honest, that also means they have Integrity, but that is not necessarily the case.

Examine these scenarios and see if an honest person is acting with Integrity.

  • Watching someone else cheat on a test, in a game, or on a work project and not participating but saying nothing.
  • Hearing another person tell a lie to a customer and doing and saying nothing.
  • Turning someone in for a compliance violation in order to gain a financial award.

Defining Honesty and Integrity

I prefer simple definitions that are 12 words or less and designed so a twelve year old can understand them.

Honesty:

Being truthful and/or not lying.

Integrity:

Doing what is good and right and proper, even at personal cost.

In each of these earlier scenarios you can say a person is honest. But are they acting with Integrity? There is more to Integrity than just NOT personally participating in a dishonest act.

While personal honesty is definitely a part of having Integrity, Integrity goes well beyond honesty. In fact, Integrity requires more of us than simply being honest.

Integrity’s root word is integer – which means whole or pure. There is a purity to Integrity that is absent if someone is being honest, but with selfish motives. The person of Integrity understands that the dishonest acts of others splatter.

You can not stay pure – maintain Integrity – and knowing allow someone else to lie, cheat or steal. You may be personally honest, but you have compromised your Integrity.

The Bottom Line:

Too often we fall into the trap of believing that being honest is enough. We believe that staying truthful and avoiding lies makes us a person of Integrity, when in fact we have settled for something less. Integrity goes beyond honesty. Integrity challenges us to do what is good and right and proper, even at personal cost.

That means a person of Integrity:

  • Speaks up when they observe someone cheat on a test, in a game, or on a work project.
  • Ensures a customer gets accurate information and stops the coworker from lying in the future.
  • Turns in someone at work for a compliance violation whether there is a financial reward or not.

Acting with Integrity in each of the scenarios takes Courage and is not easy. A person of Integrity knows that having Integrity will probably create uncomfortable situations and could cost them something. But they also believe that doing nothing and claiming that their own personal honesty is enough is a cop out.

Stopping at just being honest may only take us half way to Integrity. And half way to Integrity is not Integrity.

Question:

What is another example of being honest but lacking Integrity?

Dave Anderson is author of Becoming a Leader of Character – Six Habits that Make or Break a Leader at Work and at Home.

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