At the heart of producing results in life and leadership is integrity—the simple yet profound practice of saying what you mean and doing what you say. Integrity is not just about morality or ethics; it’s about effectiveness and workability.
When your actions consistently align with your promises, you become a powerful creator in your world. Every promise you make is a declaration of intent, and when you consistently honor that promise, you begin to see the real power of your word.
If Your Hand Went Rogue?
Imagine if your hand had a mind of its own. It moves when it wants, does what it feels like, and ignores your commands. You try to drink a glass of water, but the hand grabs a pen instead. You reach to shake someone’s hand, but it fumbles into your pocket.
This hand isn’t bad, but it’s no longer useful. It’s unpredictable. You can’t trust it. In fact, it causes more harm than good. Soon, you’d have no choice but to tie it down or, in extreme cases, consider removing it to stop the chaos it causes. The hand is no longer in integrity with the purpose it was designed for.
Now think of promises in your organization like that hand. When people make promises but don’t follow through, it’s like having a rogue hand. It’s not about being bad, but it makes the team or organization unworkable. A promise is a tool—when it’s out of integrity, the whole system starts to fail.
Just like you wouldn’t trust that hand, you can’t trust promises that aren’t kept. Deadlines get missed, projects fall apart, and trust erodes. The organization becomes less effective, like a body trying to function with a hand it can’t rely on.
When promises are out of integrity, the entire organization becomes less usable to the extent its promises are out of integrity. Productivity drops, frustration rises, and trust erodes. Just like the rogue hand, things fall apart.
To fix this, you don’t need to punish the person or cut them off from the team. You need to restore integrity. Have an honest conversation about what went wrong. Clear up the mess, and get back on track.
The Foundation of Leadership: Integrity in Action
As leadership expert Warren Bennis pointed out, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” The bridge between vision and reality is integrity. Without it, your vision remains just a dream. When leaders act with integrity—when they honor their word and follow through on their commitments—they create trust, alignment, and real impact. This is where integrity becomes not just a value but a practical tool for producing results.
Integrity as a Generative Force
Werner Erhard, a pioneering thinker in the field of personal development, introduced a powerful insight about integrity: It is not just a moral stance but a generator of power and performance. Erhard argues that when you consistently honor your word, it creates an unshakable foundation for trust, reliability, and, ultimately, results. He teaches that our integrity is whole and complete when we do what we say, when we say it will be done, and in the way we said we would do it—no excuses.
Promises: The Source of Personal Power
Integrity begins with your promises, and every promise you make is first a promise to yourself. According to Sameer Dua, the power of integrity lies in our ability to take responsibility for our promises and follow through on them, regardless of changing emotions or circumstances. He asserts that when you fail to honor your promises, you diminish your personal power and lose credibility—not only with others but with yourself.
Living in integrity means recognizing that your word is the source of your reality. When you say something will happen, and you commit to making it happen, you are shaping your world in alignment with your declaration. This is where true leadership emerges—when you create results not by chance or luck, but by the force of your integrity.
Three Kinds of Promises
Criminal Promise:
A criminal promise is when you or someone says “yes” to a task or agreement, but internally they already know they won’t deliver on time or at all. For example, someone promises to deliver a task by Monday but already knows they will deliver it on Wednesday and does not communicate this discrepancy. It’s a form of dishonesty since the person knowingly gives their word without the intention to follow through.
Conditional Promise:
A conditional promise is when you or someone commits to something, but their commitment is dependent on external conditions. For example, saying, “I will be on time if there’s no traffic” or “I will do this if everything goes according to plan.” This kind of promise leaves room for excuses when circumstances change, allowing the person to back out of the commitment without taking responsibility.
Committed Promise:
A committed promise is the highest form of promise. In this type, the person is fully dedicated to making it happen no matter what . If they face challenges or realize they cannot fulfill their commitment, they will inform the other party immediately, rather than waiting to be called out on it. This kind of promise builds trust, as the individual takes full responsibility for their word and actions.
Creating Trust and Reliability: Bob Dunham’s View
Bob Dunham, founder of the Institute for Generative Leadership, builds on this by explaining that integrity creates the conditions for trust and reliability in relationships and organizations. When leaders honor their commitments, they set a standard of reliability that others can depend on. Trust becomes the currency that fuels high-performing teams, collaborative environments, and lasting partnerships.
Dunham suggests that the breakdown of trust in teams and organizations often stems from a failure to maintain integrity. This could be something as simple as consistently missing deadlines or failing to deliver on promises. Each breach of integrity, no matter how small, erodes the foundation of trust that is essential for long-term success.
These questions will gently provoke you to see blind spots that are currently producing results in your life that you want to avoid:
- Have I said “yes” to any requests because I didn’t want to seem incapable, even though I knew I couldn’t follow through?
- Have I ever agreed to a timeline just to avoid confrontation, knowing that I had no intention of meeting it?
- Have I ever said “I’ll try” instead of giving a clear commitment, leaving myself an escape route if things get tough?
- Am I allowing myself to back out of commitments when a “better” opportunity comes along?
- In what situations do I agree to things knowing I’ll probably back out or delay without communicating it clearly?
- Am I spending more time fixing problems caused by broken promises than I would if I communicated openly from the start?
- What opportunities have I lost because I failed to fully commit, opting instead to make conditional promises that I later dropped?
- How much stress, anxiety, or guilt do I experience because of promises I’ve made but can’t or won’t keep?
Integrity is the Path to Mastery: Michael Jensen’s Insights
According to Michael Jensen, one of the leading voices in business ethics, integrity is fundamental to achieving mastery in any field. In his paper “Integrity: A Positive Model,” Jensen argues that integrity is the essence of performance. When individuals and organizations operate with integrity, they are whole and complete, enabling them to perform at their highest levels.
Jensen explains that most people fail to recognize the economic and practical value of integrity. He sees it as not only a personal virtue but also a competitive advantage in business. When you live with integrity, you make fewer mistakes, recover from errors more quickly, and build stronger relationships—all of which lead to better outcomes and sustained success.
Watch this short video – https://vimeo.com/104661437
Honor Your Word, Even When It’s Uncomfortable
A critical aspect of integrity is keeping your word, especially when it’s uncomfortable. Life and leadership are full of situations where it would be easier to back out, make excuses, or shift blame. But true integrity means following through on your commitments, even when it’s tough.
As Sameer Dua emphasizes, “Integrity is not about convenience.” It’s about holding yourself to a standard that transcends your preferences, feelings, and circumstances.
By honoring your word—even when it’s uncomfortable—you build a track record of reliability that people, including yourself, can trust. This reliability becomes the bedrock upon which you build your leadership.
The Power of Promises to Yourself
The first promise you ever make is to yourself. As Werner Erhard and others teach, the promises we make to others are just an extension of the promises we’ve already made to ourselves. When you break a promise to someone else, you’re also breaking a promise to yourself. And when that happens, it undermines your belief in your own ability to create results.
Keeping promises to yourself is an essential part of living in integrity. It starts with the small things: if you say you’re going to wake up early to exercise or make time for your family, do it. These small promises matter because they build a foundation of self-trust. When you trust yourself, you have the confidence to make bigger promises—ones that shape your future and transform your leadership.
What’s Possible is What You Say is Possible
Here’s the most important part: When what you do aligns with what you say, you gain the power to create anything you declare. Imagine this—whatever comes out of your mouth, happens. That’s the power of living in integrity.
Michael Jensen describes this alignment as the key to creating possibility. When your words match your actions, you become a force of creation. Suddenly, the realm of possibility expands because you’ve proven that what you say can be trusted. People around you begin to believe in your word, and more importantly, you begin to believe in your word. In this way, what’s possible is directly tied to what you say is possible.
When you live in this way, you no longer need to wonder if your goals are achievable. You know they are—because you say they are, and you have the integrity to make them happen.
Integrity is more than a value—it’s a tool for creating your world. When you say what you mean and do what you say, you unlock a new level of leadership, trust, and personal power. You become the kind of leader who produces real, tangible results, not by luck or force, but by the sheer power of your word.