Why integrity is important to resilience

The speaker shares a personal story about working in a financial services organization and witnessing unethical practices among senior executives. Despite having doubts, the speaker and others stayed because they relied on their income. Eventually, the director shut down the team. The speaker emphasizes the importance of money in maintaining integrity. Integrity is seen as crucial for resilience, and the speaker poses several questions to assess one's integrity and its impact on resilience. Building integrity and resilience is important for making a difference in other people's lives. Hello, Jeremy Deeds here, and welcome to the Insight Post for the 16th of August 2023, Why Integrity is Important to Resilience. I worked as a junior salesman in a financial services organisation many years ago. We should all do it. There is nothing like tramping the streets of London in the pouring rain, selling insurance door to door to teach you a thing or two about how not to sell. However, when I realised that some senior executives were beginning to adopt unethical practices, I started to have more serious doubts. These practices were not unlawful by any manner of means. Still, the fact that we were remunerated partly by commission allowed more experienced sales executives to make a bit more money than they might have. The tension between integrity and security. These practices spread throughout training sessions and company sales visits. At first, these seemed minor adjustments to the sales process we were required to follow. The effects seemed negligible and not worth worrying about. But as the team began to fry bigger fish, the impact became more pronounced and our integrity came under strain. One thing stopped me and others from leaving. We had an income, and as most of us were living hand to mouth, then we didn't want to risk our income disappearing. As time passed, the tension between integrity and security grew. The situation came to a head when the director stepped in and wound up the team. Not good. Like all these experiences, it was not fun at the time, but it taught me that money is an integral part of integrity. I would have had no qualms about leaving earlier if I had put money aside to tide me over the gap before I found another income. Integrity is central to resilience. Integrity is an essential element of our resilience. Without integrity, we are vulnerable to forces beyond our control. And as my story shows, money is a necessary part of integrity. They are not the only part. Here are some questions to help you consider the strength of your integrity and the impact on your resilience. Do you regard establishing trust with others as critical, or do you rarely take the time to build trust? Do you recognise the reality of situations and tell it how it is, or do you tend to say whatever advances you? Maybe you recognise the reality of facts but are less exact with inferences. Do you always finish what you start or leave others in alert by walking away before you finish the job? Do you view your mistakes as shameful and to be kept hidden, or as a source of learning and growth? Do you take active steps to grow and develop? Do you act like a god and expect others to bow down to you, or do you recognise and accept that some things are more significant than you? Your answers should help you build your integrity and resilience. You can see from the other person's point of view how important these questions are, especially if you are looking at a new purpose in your life and want to make a difference amongst other people.