Integrity

"I would never do any of that crap. You think I'm going to ruin my relationship with God just because I want to get better in this game? You think I'm going to ruin everything because of steroids?"

Have you been watching the news lately? Do you recognize the names Steve McNair, Arturo Gatti, Mark Sanford, and Roland Burris have at least two things in common. First, I would put them all in the leaders column on my scorecard. Why? In it's simplest form, leadership is influence and all four of these men where influential in their particular field. Second, they have all been in the new this week at least partly because of moral failures in their lives. Which brings me to my point.

If you've been around Landmark Christian School for any time, you recognize this picture. The iceberg is one of the images we use to illustrate our view of leadership. Most of you are aware that 90% of the iceberg is underwater and only 10% is above the surface. We believe the 90% below the surface is a leaders character and integrity and the 10% above the surface represents a leaders skills.

If you think about it, most leadership failures are not a result of a leaders lack of ability, but rather a result of the leaders character and integrity. And just like it was not the part of the iceberg above the surface that sunk the Titanic, if you fail as a leader, it probably won't be your skills that cause you to fail. Yet, if we are not careful, we'll spend the majority of our time as leaders on improving our leadership skills at the detriment to our character and integrity. If you think about it though, it's only natural. If you are a leader, you are always thinking about how to get your group or organization from point A to point B. How can I motivate my followers? How can I communicate our vision to my followers more effectively? How can I plan and strategize to be more effective? While all these questions are important, without a foundation of character and integrity, you will never maximize your ability to lead. Also, because leaders love progress, there will always be a temptation to cut corners and compromise our character at the altar of progress. That's why quotes like the one at the beginning of this blog are so encouraging to me. Anyone know who said it? I'll give you a hint: I'm watching him hit home runs while writing this blog.