As I wrote earlier this year, I read up author Charlie Feld’s book on former PepsiCo Chairman/CEO, Wayne Calloway.  Wayne was all about results, but only results that came with integrity.  Like many leaders it’s easy to talk about results and the desire we have make those results better and better, but it’s hard to talk about integrity and what it means, especially if we feel that we might be called out on our own integrity.  Wayne Calloway was not afraid to talk about integrity, what it meant, and most importantly, recognize it when he saw it and no matter how hard, call others on it when he didn’t see integrity in action.  He did this because he knew that results without the balance of integrity become results at all costs and this how companies and people get damaged. So, he pushed hard on integrity and one element of this was, “keeping the meeting within the meeting”.  What he meant was that if we are going to have a conversation, disagreement, agreement, decision or debate that it should happen in the meeting, with everyone present, and not in the hallway or later when small groups would go do their own thing. I’m as guilty as anyone of having done this, but Wayne’s reminder is a good one in that when we take the meeting outside of the meeting we are not practicing high integrity.

I probably don’t have to write much more than the above for us to get the point.  Our integrity must trump all else if we want to truly work to the purpose of bringing glory to God.  It’s a small thing, to be on the right side of keeping the meeting in the meeting, but it could also be a huge thing for keeping or losing the perception of our integrity.

Reference:  Proverbs 12:19 (New Living Translation)